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The Kansas Conflict 



BY 



CHARLES ROBINSON 



LATE GOVERNOR OF KANSAS 




NEW YORK 

HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1892 






Copyright, 1892, by Charles Robinson. 

A /I rights reserved. 



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H)eDicateD 

TO 

ELI THAYER 

WHO CONCEIVED AND EXECUTED THE PLAN OF ORGANIZED 

EMIGRATION BY WHICH A FREE STATE IN KANSAS WAS MADE POSSIBLE 

AND TO HIS CO-OPERATORS IN THE STATES; AND ALSO 

TO 

THE MEMBERS OF THE FREE STATE PARTY 

BY WHOSE COURAGE, FIRMNESS, PRUDENCE, SAGACITY 

AND SUFFERING W^AS ACHIEVED A VICTORY AGAINST OPPRESSION 

SECOND TO NONE IN THE ANNALS OF HISTORY 



PREFACE. 

An apology may be due to the reading public for submit- 
ting to it the pages that follow. In an address before the 
Kansas State Historical Society, on retiring from the office 
of president, in the winter of 1881, I said: 

" The time for writing the true history of Kansas has not 
yet arrived, and will not arrive till the historian shall be so 
far removed from the actors and passions of the hour as to 
be able to siu^vey calmly the whole field, and to discern 
clearly, not only events, but causes and effects as well. 
Distance lends enchantment to a view, and clearness to the 
vision of the historian. A corporal might narrate with ac- 
curacy the exploits of his foraging squad, but he would be 
a poor historian even of his company. The part he played 
with his squad would be more important to him than all the 
other exploits of the larger body, however brilliant, and, in 
fact, would prevent him from seeing what his comrades were 
doing. The colonel of a regiment might relate with great 
fidehty the achievements of his regiment, but he in turn 
would be a poor historian of the brigade. A general of 
brigade or division might be well qualified to furnish facts 
connected with his immediate command, but the more strictly 
he attended to his own duties the less would he be compe- 
tent to write the history of the army. So the General-in-chief 
could tell acciu-ately, perhaps, of the movements which he 
had ordered and which had been made according to his 
direction, but before a true history of the war could be writ- 



ten, the powers behind the General must be consulted. The 
War Secretary, the Commander-in-chief of all the forces, the 
Congress that directs the commander, the people who make 
the Congress, with the influences and motives that con- 
trol the people themselves — must all be taken into the ac- 
count. 

" The actors in any struggle are unfitted to be the histo- 
rians of that struggle, and this unfitness extends to all their 
sympathizers and partisans. Should an actor attempt to 
write history, the attempt would necessarily result in magnify- 
ing the part he had acted or witnessed, at the expense of all 
others, while a sympathizer or partisan would be incapable 
of treating all the actors with impartiality. The worst of 
all historians is he who selects his own hero, and makes all 
events revolve about him, as the planets around the sun. 
Such a person may write tolerable romance or fiction founded 
on fact, but history, never." 

This being my belief, I make no pretense that this book, 
while it gives the conflict in Kansas from my point of view, 
is a complete history of that struggle. It is written for two 
reasons : The first is the importunity of persons who were 
actors or sympathizers in making a free State of Kansas ; 
and the second, that no writer thus far has taken the view 
that seems to me the true one of the movements made by 
the Free-State party, and of the causes and reasons for the 
same. In May, 1868, Hon. D. W. Wilder, who has always 
taken a deep interest in Kansas history, wrote asking for a 
paper upon this subject, saying: "The point I aim at is to 
give the man's own version of the scenes in which he has 
been actor or witness — and that is what History will go back 
to when she at last takes up her impartial pen to tell this 
story." 

Such, in the main, is this book. It is simply an account of 
the struggle as witnessed by one of the actors. It was intended 
to give details at length and the part taken by individuals in 
different movements, but it was found that to do so would 



extend the work beyond desirable limits, and much matter 
of this nature has been stricken out. There are many of the 
actors whose names deserve high honor, and whose deeds 
would fill a volume, who have been passed by with but a 
word, or perhaps not even mentioned. To have done com- 
plete justice to individuals would have obscured or abbre- 
viated the outlines of the general conflict which I aimed to 
give. 

While the contest between the Free-State and Slave-State 
men was most earnest, and casual observers would be induced 
to beheve most bitter, the writer of this book can truthfully 
say that he never permitted his personal feelings to become 
enlisted from first to last. No uncivil word or act was heard 
or witnessed between myself and the most violent of the 
opposite party. Oiu: personal intercourse was at all times 
most courteous. The same is true of factional differences 
among Free-State men. Not an uncivil word ever passed 
between myself and Lane, Brown, or any other partisan. 
The work in which all were engaged was too important for 
the workers who were actuated by principle to engage in 
personalities. 

The conduct of the War of the Rebellion is perhaps treated 
with too little respect for great names, but there is not the 
least bitterness of feeling. Believing that there was the most 
inexcusable, unnecessary, and wanton destruction of life and 
property, I have characterized conduct as I think it merits, 
without other feeling than that of regret and a just indigna- 
tion that such outrages should be permitted by those who 
had the power to prevent them. 

It is very likely that the reader will find many shortcom- 
ings, many important matters omitted and some things said 
that might have been said better or, perhaps, should not have 
been said at all ; but if anything has been written that shall 
aid the disinterested historian in getting at the truth of the 
most important conflict of this age and country, I shall feel 
abundantly rewarded for my labor. 



That some readers will be disturbed and displeased is also 
very likely. Oliver Wendell Holmes says : 

" You never need think you can turn over any old false- 
hood, without a terrible squirming and scattering of the 
horrid little population that dwells under it, F.very real 
thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of some- 
body or other." 

C. Robinson. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

PREFACE V 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

CHAPTER I. 

Slavery and Anti-Slavery. — Colonization Society. — American Anti- 
Slavery Society. — Liberty and Free- Soil Parties i 

CHAPTER II. 

Weapons and Machinery Needed. — Settlers Required. — How Se- 
cured i6 

CHAPTER III. 

Characteristics of Contestants. — Eastern and Western Settlers. — 
The Overland Route to California in 1849. — The Sacramento 
Riot 26 

CHAPTER IV. 

Situation in the East. — Eli Thayer and his Associates. — Settlement 
of Lawrence. — Claim Controversies 66 

CHAPTER V. 
Settlements. — Elections. — Public Sentiments 91 

CHAPTER VI. 

Repudiation. — Means of Defense. — The Country Agitated. — The 
First Kansas Celebration of the Fourth of July 121 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

PAGE 

The Territorial Legislature. — The Topeka Constitution 153 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Murder of Dow. — The Wakarusa War. — Murder and Burial 
of Barber 181 

CHAPTER IX. 
Results of the Wakarusa War. — A Congressional Investigation. . . .212 

CHAPTER X. 

The Marshal's Invasion of Lawrence, May 21, 1856. — Shooting of 
Jones. — An Official Riot. — Arrest of Robinson. — Protest to 
President. — Reeder's Escape 231 

CHAPTER XL 

The Potawatomie Massacre and its Effects. — A Guerrilla War. 
— Dispersion of the State Legislature. — Arrival of Lane and 
Brown 265 

CHAPTER XII. 

Free-State and Pro-Slavery Forces. — Arrival of Governor Geary. — 
End of the War. — The Parts played by Brown and Lane 302 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Conduct of the Army in Kansas. — Agitation in the East. — The 
Presidential Election. — Governor Geary's Failure 332 

CHAPTER XIV. 
State and Territorial Elections in 1857 344 

CHAPTER XV. 

Lecompton Constitution. — Leavenworth Constitution. — Ultra Radi- 
cals 369 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PAGE 

Difficulties in Southern Kansas. — Montgomery and Brown. — Marais 
des Cygnes Massacre. — Brown's Parallels. — Arts of Peace. . . .391 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Killing of Jenkins. — The Services of Lane and Brown. — Ad- 
mission of Kansas to the Union. — Secession. — The Governor's 
First Message 421 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Troops Called. — Lane's Brigade and Jay-Hawking. — Lane's In- 
fluence at Washington 434 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Growth of Kansas. — Her Institutions. — Temperance. — Prohi- 
bition. — Importance of the Kansas Conflict 464 

APPENDIX 482 



INTRODUCTION. 

For years myself and others within and without the State 
have been urging Governor Robinson to write what he 
knows about the early history of Kansas. " Perseverance 
conquers all things," and at last the history is written. And, 
to my great surprise, I am 'complimented and honored with 
an invitation to write the introduction. 

Any history of Kansas without Governor Robinson as the 
prominent figure would be like the "play of Hamlet with 
Hamlet left out." He has an array of facts and information 
that no other man has, without which any history of Kansas 
would be incomplete. I first met Governor Robinson (then 
Dr. Robinson) in Boston, March 5, 1855, on the eve of leav- 
ing for Kansas with the Manhattan Colony, and was espe- 
cially indebted to him for valuable suggestions. I was pe- 
culiarly impressed with his qualifications for a great leader. 
He was tall, well-proportioned, commanding in appearance, 
yet winning in manner ; with a clear, keen, blue eye ; a 
countenance that denoted culture and intellect, and a will 
that few would care to run against. He would pass any- 
where as a good-looking man, and in any crowd would com- 
mand attention. With perfect control of himself, he could 
rule in the midst of a storm. His magnetism would inspire 
men to do and to dare in the cause of human Liberty, and 
the establishment of the great principles of Republican gov- 
ernment. 

In the history of the world. Providence has raised up men 
qualified for particular work. Where would British India 
have been to-day without Lord Clive, though at the com- 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

mencement of the great struggle he was a merchant's clerk ? 
What would the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock have done 
without the cool and brave Miles Standish? And in our 
Revolution who could have led us to the victory except 
George Washington ? And still later on, who could have 
conquered the Rebellion but the indomitable Grant ? While 
Eli Thayer, providentially the founder of the New England 
Emigrant Aid Company, was flying over the North hke a 
flaming meteor, stirring up the people for money and recruits 
in his grand crusade for the freedom of Kansas, Charles 
Robinson, his trusty lieutenant, wonderfully prepared for it 
by a like Providence by his California experience, was sternly 
holding the helm amid the storms and breakers in Kansas. 
Without Eli Thayer the emigrants would not have come, and 
without Charles Robinson it would have been in vain that 
they did come ! Cool, clear-headed, and brave, he could see 
the end from the beginning, and the sure way to reach it. 
While others were all excitement, he was perfectly self-pos- 
sessed, and knew the right thing to do, and did it. To his 
mind two things were perfectly clear : First, there was to be 
no resistance of the United States Government. Secondly, 
the territorial laws made by a bogus Legislature were to be 
ignored. To carry out these principles required clear heads 
and many times a passive resistance worthy of the early 
martyrs. His great idea was in every case so to manage 
that the Pro-Slavery men should be in the wrong and the 
Free-State men in the right. The first must be the aggressor, 
and the second the passive sufferer, or act only in self-de- 
fense. In this way alone he could secure the united sympa- 
thy and support of the North. 

The New England Emigrant Aid Company, without which 
Kansas could not have been saved, was composed of a 
remarkable body of men. Eli Thayer says : " No other cor- 
poration ever formed in this country can compare at all in 
ability, character, influence, and wealth with the Directors of 
the Emigrant Aid Company." And through his genius, skill. 



INTRODUCTION. 



and forethought it was created and made effectual in its great 
and glorious work. In his valuable book, " The Kansas 
Crusade," published in i88g, he has written a wonderful 
history of his grand and noble work which made it pc^sible 
to save Kansas from slavery by outside work. And now we 
have Governor Robinson's history, which tells how Kansas 
was saved to freedom by inside work. They constitute two 
of the most important histories yet written, which tell how 
Kansas was made a free State. Let every Kansan read 
them. 

Governor Robinson has brought to the work honesty, 
conscientiousness, ability, and independence. Never did Dr. 
Robinson appear to greater advantage than in the Waka- 
rusa war of December, 1855. Governor Shannon, inspired 
by Sheriff Jones and other pro-slavery leaders, issued a proc- 
lamation for volunteers to enforce the bogus laws, and in 
response some 1900 Missourians assembled at Franklin to 
wipe out Lawrence, the hotbed of rebellion against the 
supremacy of slavery. Dr. Robinson was the diplomatist 
who devised the policy adopted to thwart the enemy. Shan- 
non's good sense and legal mind enabled him, on arriving 
at Lawrence, at once to grasp the situation. A treaty was 
made and the tables were turned. The army of Sheriff Jones 
was ordered to disperse, and a legal force found itself at 
once a mob, while Robinson and his force became law-abid- 
ing citizens, and were recognized by Governor Shannon to 
be so. By request of the Governor, who seemed to distrust 
his own power of persuasion, Dr. Robinson and General 
Lane accompanied him to Franklin to explain to the Mis- 
sourians the true condition of affairs. Lane first spoke, but 
unfortunately provoked instead of conciliated, and the meet- 
ing was on the point of breaking up in confusion when Dr. 
Robinson was called out, and by an appeal to facts and their 
common sense, he conquered their prejudices and the victory 
was won. During this negotiation, as on other important 
occasions, came in the disturbing element of John Brown 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

and a few followers who were as ready to fight the United 
States Government as they were the border ruffians. Brown 
himself wished to go out and open the fight with the enemy, 
and was only kept quiet by a threat from Robinson that he 
would place him under arrest. 

It was while Dr. Robinson was a prisoner under a guard 
of United States soldiers at Lecompton, that General Lane 
proposed to release him and the other Free-State prisoners 
by force, when the General was very decidedly requested to 
keep quiet. Their liberation without force soon followed. 
It was while he was a prisoner that John Brown, with some 
half dozen men, in the night, on Pottawatomie Creek, called 
out and assassinated three men and two boys in a shocking 
manner. At a mass meeting called soon after by both par- 
ties, the act was denounced and disowned. Brown was 
condemned even by his own son Jason, with whom I rode a 
long distance on his way to California, in 1S84. Neverthe- 
less, that massacre was the commencement of those terrible 
atrocities that followed in south-eastern Kansas, and beyond 
the control of Dr. Robinson. Had his statesmanship pre- 
vailed everywhere, very little bloodshed would have attended 
the making of Kansas a free State. For Dr. Robinson the 
border ruffians had great respect, and when at Lawrence 
they had seized the polls and driven all other Free-State men 
away, on his approach they cried out, " Here comes the 
Doctor ; let him vote," and the way was cleared. Even in 
that terrible massacre during the Lawrence raid, and when 
the Doctor slowly retired from his barn to the brow of Mt. 
Oread, near where several of Quantrell's men were on guard, 
they did not molest him. There was a certain something, a 
strange, commanding influence, a presence that neutralized 
for the time being any power to do him harm. In all of his 
Kansas experience, both when free and when for four months 
a prisoner, I never heard of his receiving a personal insult. 
The same was true of his California experience. He would 
meet hundreds of men single-handed and prevent the de- 



INTRODUCTION, xvu 

struction of the squatters' property without a blow being 
struck. 

While I have always looked upon Governor Robinson as 
raised up and specially qualified as the man, and the only 
man, within the territory to lead on to certain victory, I have 
never thought him a good politician. He is too honest and 
outspoken ; his sentiments, whether popular or unpopular, 
are never concealed. With the highest appreciation of his 
services in saving Kansas, and with a personal regard that 
has few equals, it has so happened, fortunately or unfortu- 
nately, that ever since the war we have in most cases voted on 
opposite sides, yet without disturbing our personal relations. 
The world will never be quite right till we allow other people 
the same freedom of thought and action that we claim for 
ourselves. 

Before closing I wish to quote from several contempo- 
raries. G. Douglas Brewerton, correspondent JV. Y. Herald, 
who was in Kansas in December, 1855, and January, 1856, 
thus speaks of Charles Robinson : " In Kansas politics Gen- 
eral Robinson was a member of the State constitutional 
convention, is chairman of the Free-State executive commit- 
tee, and in addition to this holds the military rank of Major- 
General and Commander-in-chief of the Kansas Volunteers, 
as the Free-State army of Kansas style themselves. He 
may be regarded as the real head — the thinking one, we 
mean — and mainspring of the Free-State party, or, to speak 
more correctly, of all that party who are worth anything. 
We believe him to be a keen, shrewd, far-seeing man, who 
would permit nothing to stand in the way of the end which 
he desired to gain. He is, moreover, cool and determined, 
and appears to be endowed with immense firmness ; we 
should call him a conservative man now, but conservative 
rather from policy than from principle. He seems to have 
strong common sense, and a good ordinary brain, but no 
brilliancy of talent. In fact, to sum Governor Robinson up 
in a single sentence, we consider him the most dangerous 



xviii INTRODUCTION. 

enemy which the pro-slavery party have to encounter in 
Kansas. In person he is tall and well-made, and more than 
ordinarily handsome, gentlemanly, but by no means winning 
in his manners, with one of those cold, keen blue eyes that 
seem to look you through." 

S. S, Prouty sums up the character of Governor Robinson 
in an address January 27, 1881, before the Kansas State 
Historical Society, as follows : 

" One of the most conspicuous and influential leaders of 
the Free-State party was Charles Robinson, the first Gov- 
ernor of the State of Kansas. He was noted for his sterling 
common sense, firmness, coolness, and courage. Though an 
uncompromising anti-slavery man, there was no sentiment 
or gush in his composition. He was regarded as a conserv- 
ative man and too business-like and practical by the ideal- 
ists. He fancied fighting as well as any other man when it 
was absolutely necessary, or when it would benefit the Free- 
State cause. But he did not believe in sanguinary strife 
simply for the love of it, or for ends but remotely associated 
with the Kansas contest. Such men as Governor Robinson 
were needed to hold in check the reckless and imprudent, 
to bring order out of chaos, and secure the fruits of victory." 

October 30, 1851, he married Miss Sara T. D. Lawrence, 
daughter of Hon. Myron Lawrence, an eminent lawyer and 
statesman of Massachusetts. Her mother was Clarissa 
(D wight) Lawrence. She was of the New England family 
of Dwights, of western Massachusetts, of which President 
Dwight, of Yale College, is a worthy scion. She is the 
author of " Kansas ; its Interior and Exterior Life," a book 
which in its time was a not unworthy rival of " Uncle Tom's 
Cabin," and did scarcely less in its sphere, to rouse the 
Northern heart, in the early years of the Kansas struggle. 
They have no children. 

Eli Thayer, in his " Kansas Crusade," * speaks of his first 
meeting with Charles Robinson as follows : 
* "Kansas Crusade," page ;};i. 



INTRODUCTION. xix 

" It was at one of the Chapman Hall meetings (in Boston) 
that I first saw Charles Robinson (afterwards Governor of 
Kansas), and engaged him to act as agent of the Emigrant 
Aid Company. A wiser and more sagacious man for this 
work could not have been found within the borders of the 
nation. By nature and by training he was perfectly well 
equipped for the arduous work before him. A true Demo- 
crat and a lover of the rights of man, he had risked his life 
in California while defending the poor and weak against the 
cruel oppression of the rich and powerful. He was willing 
at any time, if there were need, to die for his principles. In 
addition to such brave devotion to his duty, he had the 
clearest foresight and the coolest, calmest judgment in deter- 
mining the com"se of action best adapted to secure the rights 
of the Free-State settlers. No one in Kansas was so much 
as he the man for the place and time. He was a deeper 
thinker than Atchison, and triumphed over the border ruffians 
and the more annoying and more dangerous self-seekers of 
his own party. The man who 'paints the lily and gilds 
refined gold ' is just the one to tell us how Charles Robinson 
might have been better qualified for his Kansas work. But 
his character, so clearly defined in freedom's greatest struggle, 
superior to the help or harm of criticism, reveals these salient 
points of excellence — majesty of mind and humility of heart, 
stern justice and tender sympathy, heroic will and sensitive 
conscience, masculine strength and maidenly modesty, leonine 
courage and womanly gentleness, with power to govern 
based on self-restraint, and love of freedom deeper than love 
of life. With such a man at the head of the Free-State 
cause it is not strange that I felt no uneasiness about its 
management. I never troubled him with letters of advice 
about Kansas matters, which he was in a position to under- 
stand so well. In the three years' conflict very few letters 
passed between us. He never knew where or when a letter 
would reach me, as I was speaking all the way from the 
Penobscot to the Schuylkill, and from the seaboard to the 



XX INTRODUCTION. 

lakes. It was my mission to raise men and money for the 
security of freedom in the Territory, and to combine the 
Northern States in this work. I did not doubt Robinson's 
ability or fidelity in the use of means." 

Colonel S. F. Tappan, a member of the pioneer party 
from Massachusetts, in 1854; a Branson rescuer ; newspaper 
correspondent ; Clerk of the State Legislature who was calling 
the roll of the House when that body was dispersed by Col- 
onel Sumner ; descendant of the famous Tappan families of 
New England and New York ; Colonel of the First Colorado 
Regiment diuing the war, and member of the Indian Peace 
Commission afterwards, wrote to the Denver Tributie of 
September 9, 1883, a communication in which he said: 

" Having referred to the early history of Kansas, the long- 
protracted struggle of its people to consecrate its soil to 
freedom, efforts at last rewarded by the admission of Kansas 
into the Federal Union as a free State, it seems appropriate 
to make a brief reference to the man who more than any 
other — in fact, more than all others — by being patient as 
well as herioc — patient under the most adverse and trying 
circumstances, patient when persecuted, patient when victo- 
rious, patient in council, patient in battle, and more than all, 
patient in prison — so shaped and directed the policy of the 
Free-State men as to bring about the most desired object, 
the freedom of Kansas. When the first party of emigrants 
to Kansas from New England — as early as July, 1854 — 
reached the city of St. Louis en route, they there met one 
who had preceded them to Kansas and made a selection of a 
location — now Lawrence — on the Kansas River, just west 
of the hmits of the Shawnee reservation, about forty-five 
miles west of Kansas City, as a place for this party to make 
a settlement. He then returned and met them at St. Louis, 
further to aid them in their purchases for their new homes. 
This man had been a pioneer in a new country, one of the 
earliest of those who went to California, and while there was 
shot through the body while endeavoring to vindicate the 



INTRODUCTION, xxi 

rights of the settlers to the land, commanding and leading 
them against a monster monopoly which was seeking to 
obtain and control all of the public domain. After being 
shot, he was placed on board a prison-ship and there retained 
until the people had elected and called upon him to represent 
them in the Legislatm-e. Upon the passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, he emigrated to Kansas, and ever since has 
been closely and prominently connected with its interests. 
Upon the commencement of hostilities between the Free- 
State men and the invaders, he was called upon to take 
command of the former. Had it simply been a question 
between the Free-State men and the Missoiurians, it would 
have soon been settled by a decisive action. But the ques- 
tion at issue was more than this ; it was not local, but 
national. The Missourians were encouraged and sustained 
at the outset by the entire force of the Federal Government, 
by the slave power of the South, and their allies at the North. 
The Federal judiciary and the Federal army were also ar- 
rayed on their side and against the Free-State men. These 
were potent, because on the ground and ready to be applied 
in behalf of the invader. Under these adverse circumstances 
the cause of free Kansas seemed at first sight lost forever. 
To fully comprehend the situation and the best means of 
averting the storm required a man of the greatest patience, 
judgment, coolness, and courage ; one able to consolidate 
and control the Free-State element in such a way as to pre- 
vent a direct conflict wath the Federal authority, and at the 
same time to maintain a determined position of resistance to 
the invader of the Territory and oppressor of the settlers ; 
one able to shape the policy of the people and direct it to- 
ward a final victory upon the appearance of every new move- 
ment of the enemy. Kansas had such a man, who proved 
himself equal to every emergency. When the invader had, 
by violence, obtained absolute control of the first Legislative 
Assembly, and had enacted an infamous slave code for the 
government of Kansas, this man then advised an open repu- 



XXU INTRODUCTION. 

diation of the concern and the immediate formation of a 
constitution and the organization of a government under it 
of the people, by the people, and for the people, which was 
done. This movement proved a check upon the pro-slavery 
party. Then the Administration determined to destroy this 
new government, using the Federal judges and the Federal 
army for the purpose. This man was indicted, arrested, and 
imprisoned upon the charge of treason, held for months as 
a prisoner, restrained of his liberty by a company of United 
States troops. Colonel Sumner, with his regiment, dispersed 
the Legislatiu-e at the point of his sword. Free-State men 
were arrested, manacled, and in some instances driven for 
miles across the prairie by detachments of Federal troops. 
The army had become fully identified with the invaders and 
determined upon the enslavement of Kansas. It was a crisis 
in affairs. One false movement on the part of the people 
would jeopardize everything. But their leader, although a 
prisoner in a Federal camp, still directed affairs and con- 
trolled events. When the young men, smarting under the 
indignities heaped upon them — when they saw the army and 
flag of their country prostituted to the service of the slave 
party, imperilling the freedom of Kansas, felt impelled to rise 
up in armed resistance, attack the prison camp, and release 
their General, he said, ' No ; under no circumstances do you 
permit yourselves to fire upon the army or the flag of our 
common country.' Like the great discoverer Columbus, 
who had been arrested and put in irons by order of the 
tyrannic Governor of Hispaniola, Bobadilla, and sent to 
Spain, when importuned by the captain of his guard and the 
master of the ship to permit them to remove the manacles 
from his limbs, said, ' No ; they were placed upon me by 
order of my sovereigns, and there they must remain until 
removed by their command.' Our Kansas Columbus, in 
the same spirit, replied, ' These bonds were placed upon me 
by authority of the Government, and must remain until re- 
moved by the same power,' which was done, and this man 



INTRODUCTION. xxiii 

became the first executive of free Kansas ; its war Governor, 
the organizer of its heroic army that went forth to maintain 
the Federal Union and uphold its flag and authority against 
a colossal armed rebelhon, in which 3420 Kansas men laid 
down their lives, that our Government might hve." 

The early settlers well understood Dr. Robinson and 
rallied to his support. 

That he was appreciated is fully shown by his almost 
unanimous election to the highest office within the gift of the 
people, that of the first Governor of the State. And well 
did he earn his title of " the War Governor of Kansas." 

Isaac T. Goodnow. 
Manhattan, Kansas, June i, 1891. 



CHAPTER I. 

SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY. COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 

AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. LIBERTY AND FREE- 
SOIL PARTIES. 

On Kansas soil was gained the first decisive victory against 
the slave power of this nation. Had her pioneers failed to 
make Kansas a free State, slavery to-day would have been 
national and freedom sectional. From the year 1820 to 
1S54 the triumphal march of the slave power had been unin- 
terrupted, and the time seemed at hand when the defiant 
threat of a Southern planter, that he would call the roll of 
his slaves under the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument, 
would be fulfilled. This may seem an extravagant claim, 
but it is susceptible of proof. Before this nation was born, 
while the Pilgrim Fathers were fleeing from the oppression 
of the Old World, and seeking Hberty on the rock-bound 
coast of New England, a cargo of twenty African slaves was 
landed in Virginia, in the month of August, 1619. From 
this seed thus planted sprung the upas tree that overshad- 
owed the land. At first no Mason and Dixon's line divided 
the country, but nearly all the Colonies had more or less 
slaves, not excepting New York and Massachusetts. The 
slave trade, carried on in Spanish, English, and Dutch ships, 
was very lucrative, and plied with energy till the question of 
holding slaves became one of public consideration. Good 
men from the first deplored the existence of slavery, and 
hoped for its early disappearance. Among them were Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, Rush, Frankhn, Jay, Hamilton, Hopkins, 
Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, and others. As early as 1688 
1 



2 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the Quakers of Pennsylvania protested against the " buying, 
selling, and holding men in slavery." In 1696 the yearly 
meeting advised that " the members should discourage the 
introduction of slavery, and be careful of the moral and 
intellectual training of such as they held in servitude." In 
1780 they induced the Pennsylvania Legislature to begin the 
work of emancipation. Various anti-slavery societies were 
organized and conventions held against slavery during the 
Colonial period of the country. John Quincy Adams said, 
" The Fathers believed and meant slavery to be temporary ; 
emancipation was the end in view, only the time and mode 
were uncertain." In 1784 Mr. Jefferson presented to the 
Continental Congress a deed of cession of all the lands 
claimed by Virginia northwest of the Ohio River. A com- 
mittee, with Jefferson as chairman, was appointed, which 
reported a plan for the government of the land ceded or to 
be ceded. This plan contemplated its ultimate division into 
seventeen States. It was therein provided that, " after the 
year of the Christian era 1800, there shall be neither slavery 
nor involuntary servitude in any of these States, otherwise 
than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall 
have been duly convicted." This report covered not only 
the Northwest Territory, but also Kentucky, Tennessee, Ala- 
bama, and Mississippi. It was rejected for a report in July, 
1787, by Nathan Dane, chairman, reporting an ordinance 
for the territory of the northwest of the Ohio, in which there 
should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude. This 
ordinance was passed by the Continental Congress on the 
13th of July, 1787. The provision excluding slavery was 
affirmed by Congress under the Constitution in 1789. Ef- 
forts were made by the Territory of Indiana to suspend this 
ordinance, but without avail. 

Mr. Wilson in " Rise and Fall of the Slave Power," on 
page 38, ist vol., says: 

" By this legislation the character of all the territory of the United 
States was then fixed. Mr. Jefferson's proposition, made in 1784, 



ORDINANCE OF I 787. SLAVERY COMPROMISES. 3 

would have prohibited slavery after i8co in all that territory. It has 
ever been a source of profound regret to the friends of freedom that 
this prohibition failed. In the light of subsequent events, however, it 
is not at all clear that more would have been gained to freedom by its 
adoption than was secured by Mr. Dane's ordinance, which only applied 
to the territory northwest of the Ohio River. * * * While Mr. 
Jefferson's proviso might and probably would have failed to secure to 
freedom the territory south of the Ohio, it might have imperilled it in 
the territory northwest of that river. Mr. Dane's ordinance of 17S7 
probably won for freedom all that could have been securely held." 

This was the first and last substantial concession to free- 
dom by Congress. 

In March, 1820, the Missouri Compromise was adopted 
admitting Missouri as a slave State and prohibiting slavery 
from all territory north of thirty-six degrees and thirty min- 
utes. This Compromise was a victory for slavery, and 
caused great excitement in New England and the entire 
North. The Legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, Delaware, Ohio, and Indiana passed resolutions 
affirming the power and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery 
in the States to be carved out of Western territory. The 
Legislature of Pennsylvania denounced the measure of admit- 
ting Missouri as a slave-holding State as one " to spread the 
crimes and cruelties of slavery from the banks of the Missis- 
sippi to the shores of the Pacific." 

Next came the admission of Texas as a slave State, Decem- 
ber 27, 1845. This was followed by the war with Mexico, re- 
sulting in the acquisition of California, New Mexico, and Utah. 
This triumph of the slave power served to keep alive the agi- 
tation throughout the North and embitter the two sections. 

In 1850 came another compromise. California had 
adopted a Free-State constitution and apphed for admission 
into the Union. As, according to the rules of popular or 
any other sovereignty, the State could not well be rejected, 
a compromise was effected by which Utah and New Mexico 
were made Territories with the right to become slave States, 
and the Northern States became hunting-grounds for fugitive 



4 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

slaves by the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law. Here 
was another triumph for slavery which again fired the North, 
resulting in the passage of personal liberty bills in several 
States. 

Finally came the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 
which ignored the compromise line of thirty-six degrees and 
thirty minutes. After giving the boundaries, these words 
are used : 

•' The same is hereby erected into a temporary government by the name 
of the Territory of Kansas, and when admitted as a state or states, the 
said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the 
Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at 
the time of their admission. * * * That the constitution, and all 
laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall have 
the same force and effect within the said Territory of Kansas as elsewhere 
within the United States, except the eighth section of the act prepara- 
tory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March sixth, 
1820, which, being inconsistent with the principles of non-intervention 
by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by 
the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measure, is 
hereby declared inoperative and void ; it being the true intent and mean- 
ing of the act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to 
exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to 
form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject 
only to the Constitution of the United States : provided that nothing 
herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or 
regulation which may have existed prior to the 6th of March, 1820, 
either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery." 

Here is the removal of all Congressional barriers to the 
spread of slavery, not only north of thirty-six degrees and 
thirty minutes, but northwest of the Ohio River ; between 
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the great lakes and the 
Gulf of Mexico. " It being the true intent and meaning of 
the act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State" etc. 

This was the situation May 30, 1854. So far as Con- 
gressional action could go, every foot of land in the United 
States was open to slavery. Was there any agency or power 
anywhere that could prevent its extension to Kansas ? There 
were able champions of freedom in Congress — Sumner, Sew- 



SLAVERY TRIUMPHANT. 5 

ard, Chase, Hale, Wilson, Giddings, and others — ^but their 
battle had been fought and hopelessly lost. They fought 
nobly and well, but their weapons were words, words, which 
were impotent in a contest of votes. Henceforth they were 
as powerless to resist the onward march of slavery as if they 
had already been sleeping their last sleep. 

Senator W. H. Seward, on May 25, 1854, said: 

" The sun has set for the last time upon the guaranteed and certain 
liberties of all unsettled and unorganized portions of the American con- 
tinent that lie within the jurisdiction of the United States. To-morrow's 
sun will rise in dim eclipse over them. How long that obscuration 
shall last is known only to the power that directs and controls all human 
events. For myself, I know only this : that no human power can pre- 
vent its coming on, and that its passing off will be hastened and secured 
by others than those now here, and perhaps only by those belonging to 
future generations." 

Senator B. F. Wade said : 

" The humiliation of the North is complete and overwhelming. 
* * * I know full well that no words of mine can save the country 
from this impending dishonor, this meditated wrong, which is big with 
danger to the good neighborhood of the different sections of the country, 
if not to the stability of the Union itself. * * * An empire is to be 
transformed from freedom to slavery, and the people must not be con- 
sulted on such a question, so big with weal or woe to the millions who 
are to people these vast regions in all time to come." 

The New York Tribune of May 24, 1854, said: 

" The revolution is accomplished, and slavery is king. How long 
shall this monarch reign? This is now the question for the Northern 
people to answer. Their representatives have crowned the new poten- 
tate, and the people alone can depose him." 

In June, 1854, it said : 

" Not even by accident is any advantage left for liberty in their bill. 
It is all blackness without a single gleam of light — a desert without one 
spot of verdure — a crime that can show no redeeming point. * * ♦ 
A Territory which one short year ago was unanimously considered by 
all. North and South, as sacredly secured by irrepealable law to FREE- 
DOM FOREVER, has been foully betrayed by traitor hearts and 
traitor voices, and surrendered to slavery." 



6 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

The field of battle was thus removed from the halls of 
Congress to the plains of Kansas. What other agency or 
power than Congress could be invoked f 

There had been a Colonization Society that proposed to 
dispose of slavery by transporting the slaves to their former 
home, Africa. Appeals had been made for money to trans- 
port, and for slaves to be transported, but in vain. With 
all the efforts of the philanthropic, a few thousand colonists 
only could be sent, and the scheme was found to be wholly 
impracticable. It was repudiated in a public protest as early 
as 1833 by such Englishmen as Wilberforce, Macaulay, Ste- 
phen, O'Connel, and others, who declared the society to be 
"an obstacle to the destruction of slavery throughout the 
world," and pronounced its pretexts to be " delusion and its 
real effects dangerous." John Quincy Adams said of it: 
" The search of the philosopher's stone and the casting of 
nativities by the course of the stars were rational and sensible 
amusements in the comparison." Poor rehance this to pre- 
vent the spread of slavery to Kansas. 

There was another organization, called the American Anti- 
Slavery Society, in full vigor, and also The New England 
Anti-Slavery Society. The American Society was organized 
in 1833, with this platform in part: 

" We also maintain that there are at the present time, the 
highest obligations resting upon the people of the free States 
to remove slavery by moral and political action, as prescribed 
in the Constitution of the United States." The New Eng- 
land Society declared that "we will not operate on the 
exisiting relations of society by other than peaceful and law- 
ful means, and that we will give no countenance to violence 
or insurrection. That the objects of the society shall be to 
endeavor, by all means sanctioned by law, humanity, and 
religion, to effect the abolition of slavery in the United 
States." 

These were broad and practical platforms, and had they 
been adhered to, much assistance might have been rendered 



ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES. 7 

to the cause of free Kansas. Some sixteen hundred auxil- 
iary societies were organized, with a membership of nearly a 
quarter of a million, before the year 1840. But when, in 
that year, in accordance with the principles of the original 
platform, Wilham Goodell, Alvan Stewart, Myron HoUey, 
James G. Birney, Joshua Leavitt, Gerrit Smith, and others 
called a convention at Albany to consider the question of 
nominating a candidate for President, to be voted for by the 
anti-slavery men, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society 
said in an address : " For the honor and purity of our enter- 
prise, we trust that the abolitionists of the several States will 
refuse to give any countenance to the proposed convention 
at Albany. Let their verdict be recorded against it as un- 
authorized and premature. Let the meeting be insignificant 
and local, and thus rendered harmless." 

In 1843, the American Anti-Slavery Society resolved: 
" That the compact which exists between the North and the 
South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, 
involving both parties in atrocious criminalities, and that it 
should be immediately annulled." 

Also, in May, 1844, the declaration was made that 
" henceforth, until slavery be abohshed, the watchword, the 
rallying cry, the motto on the banner of the A. A. Society 
shall be, ' No union with slave-holders.' " 

A resolution was adopted declaring that "secession from 
the Government was the duty of every abolitionist, and that 
to take office or to vote for another to hold office under the 
Constitution violated anti-slavery principles, and made such 
voter an abettor of the slave-holder in his sin." 

In the " Writings of Garrison," the recognized leader of 
the A. A. Society, pages 118 and 119, are the following ex- 
pressions : 

" Know that its (the Union) subversion is essential to the triumph 
of justice, the deliverance of the oppressed, the vindication of the 
brotherhood of the race. It was conceived in sin and brought forth in 
iniquity. * * * To say that this covenant with death shall not be 



8 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

annulled — that this agreement with hell shall continue to stand — that 
this refuge of lies shall not be swept away — is to hurl defiance at the 
eternal throne, and to give the lie to Him who sits thereon. * * * 
Accursed be the American Union, as a stupendous republican imposture, 
* * * Accursed be it, for its hypocrisy, its falsehood, its impudence, 
its lust, its cruelty, its oppression. * * * Accursed be it from the 
foundation to the roof, and may there soon not be left one stone upon 
another that shall not be thrown down." 

In Parker Pillsbury's book, "Acts of the Anti-Slavery 
Apostles," page 20, he quotes from Garrison's writings as 
follows: "The members of this society (Non-resistance) 
agree in the opinion that no man, or body of men, however 
constituted, or by whatever name called, have a right to 
take the life of man as a penalty for transgression, that no 
one who professes to have the Spirit of Christ can consistently 
sue a man at law for redress of injuries, or thrust any evil- 
doer into prison ; or hold any office in which he would come 
under obligation to execute any penal enactments, or take 
part in the mihtary service ; or acknowledge allegiance to 
any human government." 

As slavery had to be excluded from Kansas, if at all, by 
votes according to law and the Constitution, no assistance 
could be looked for from the ranks of men who denounced 
the Constitution as a compact to be annulled, all law as a 
crime, and voting or holding office as a sin. Had the entire 
anti-slavery society been transferred to Kansas, as the mem- 
bers would not vote or hold office, one hundred pro-slavery 
men would have been sufficient to elect the Legislature, make 
the laws, and adopt a constitution establishing slavery, and 
all with the most profound peace and quiet in the Territory 
and nation. 

Henry Wilson said of the influence of this society, Vol. I. 
P- 574: 

" The parent society and its affiliated associations, having accepted 
this position, made it thereafter the distinctive feature of its organiza- 
tion, and the most prominent article of their creed. ' No Union with 
slave-holders ' was the motto everewhere emblazoned on their banners. 



AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 9 

Disunion was their recognized remedy. Other anti-slavery men, of 
whatever organization, were proclaimed to be wanting in an essential 
element of all true and effective opposition. However earnest and 
devoted, they were deemed inconsistent, and their labors were regarded 
as only partial, if not wholly inefficient. This general criticism embraced 
every class of anti-slavery men, and every form of anti-slavery effort. 
From the adoption of this policy of disunion in 1844, to the opening of 
the rebellion, so persistent were they in its promulgation, as the element 
of all effective effort, that the supporters of slavery seized upon the fact 
to identify all anti-slavery men with them, and to characterize all oppo- 
sition to slavery as disorganizing, revolutionary, and unpatriotic. It 
was indeed a most potent weapon in the hands of the apologists, per- 
petualists, and propagandists of slavery. Nor did they cease its use 
until their voices were silenced by the patriotism of the nation, outraged 
as it was by their own treason or acknowledged complicity with it." 

John G. Whittier, in a letter, said he was no blind wor- 
shipper of the Union, and as an abolitionist he was shut out 
from its benefits. " But I see nothing to be gained by an 
effort — necessarily limited, sectional, and futile — to dissolve 
it. The moral and political power requisite for doing it 
could far more easily abolish every vestige of slavery." 

Emerson said of them : 

'' They withdraw themselves from the common labors and competi- 
tions of the market and the caucus. * * * They are striking work 
and calling out for something to do. * * » They are not good citi- 
zens, not good members of society ; unwillingly they bear their part of 
the private and public burdens. They do not even like to vote. * * * 
They filled the world with long words and long beards. * * * They 
began in words and ended in words." 

William Birney, in " Birney and his Times," says : 

"Their strongest aspiration was to express in stinging epithets and 
vituperative language their infinite devotion to the cause of the slave; 
but they were serenely indifferent to its success or failure. They would 
not cast a ballot if the act would free three million of slaves." 

Henry C. Wright, in his book entitled " Ballot-box and 
Battle-field," says : 

" Suppose the abolition of slavery throughout the world depended on 
a presidential election, and that my vote would throw the scale for abo- 



lO THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

lition. Shall I vote? * * * I may not vote for the war system that 
is founded in guilt and blood and utterly wrong in its origin, its princi- 
ples and means, even to abolish slavery." 

Eli Thayer, in " Kansas Crusade," says : 

" The Northern people ardently desired to destroy the tree (slavery) 
itself, and were ready to adopt any legal and constitutional plan which 
might do this work. Garrison's method of casting out a devil by split- 
ting the patient in two lengthwise they did not approve, for two reasons : 
1st. Because the patient would die ; 2d. Because the devil would live." 

Schouler, in his last work, says : 

" They were not actors in affairs, but agitators, critics, come-outers, 
coiners of cutting epithets, who scourged men in public station with as 
little mercy as the slave-driver did his victim, less pleased that their 
work was being done than displeased because it was not done faster. 
Their political blunders widened the breach between the North and the 
South, and their constant instigation was to throttle that law which was 
the breath of our being — to trample down the Union, rather than con- 
vert, constrain, or conquer slavery behind the shield of the Constitu- 
tion. This was because of their fanaticism. Not one leader of this 
school ever took a responsible part in affairs, or co-operated in lawful 
and practical measures for promoting the reform they caressed in their 
preaching." 

Samuel Bowles, in Boston Evening Tf-aveller, May 29, 
1857, says: 

" The great majority of the Garrisonian party forfeit all claim to our 
esteem by being blasphemous, vituperative, coarse, and vile in their 
manners and language. We need not instance a man named Foss, who 
has the impudence to claim the title Reverend, and who began a sen- 
tence in a speech in New York week before last with the phrase, ' I 
hate the Union,' and ended it by saying, ' I hate Jesus Christ.' All the 
leaders of the Garrisonian party sat around, but no one of them rebuked 
the monstrous blasphemy. The speech was circulated through all the 
Southern papers, and Mr. Foss was denounced as 'a Republican.' If 
he had died in his cradle he would have done better by himself than to 
have lived to commit this sin. The same style of thought has been 
manifested at this gathering in the Melodeon. We listened yesterday 
to the comprehensive abuse uttered by Mr. Higginson, who also claimed 
to be a minister of the Gospel. If we had stayed five minutes longer 
than we did, and his effect had been equal to his effort, we should have 



ABOLITIONISTS. II 

been convinced that the population of the world consisted of one billion 
of depraved wretches and one perfect man named Higginson. It was 
just so with the whole of them, the same eternal whine, redeemed only 
in the case of Wendell Phillips by eloquence. All such stuff does harm. 
The few Garrisonians whom we believe honest in uttering it, we wish 
could be brought under different influences, for they are unconsciously 
injuring the anti-slavery cause. They are sustaining by their weight of 
character an organization four-fifths of whose members are selfish or 
indiscreet men and unsexed women ; an organization which has become 
fruitless, and will die in the next generation. * * * For the re- 
mainder of the Garrisonian party, the strong-minded women, and the 
professional humanitarians who earn their daily bread by injuring the 
noble cause they propose to serve, we have no feelings but of ridicule 
and contempt. It is useless to meet them in argument. They are not 
worth treating with pity. One of their peculiarities is a key to their 
whole character. The nearer a well-behaved man comes to their pro- 
fessed anti-slavery doctrines, the more vilely they abuse him." 

Such opinions might be quoted indefinitely, but enough 
have been cited to show the estimation in which the advo- 
cates of no union, no voting, no government were held by 
the voting anti-slavery men of the time, and it requires no 
argument to prove that people entertaining such views of 
government could be of no use in arresting the progress of 
slavery by making a free State in Kansas. While this is true, 
among these men and women were some of the most eloquent 
and conscientious to be found in any country or age, and 
their antagonism to the Government and Church of the 
time had some excuse. They had seen the Government at 
Washington prostituted to the spread of slavery since 1820, 
with apparently no hope for the better within the Union. 
Having lost faith in Congressmen and President, they also 
lost faith in mankind. Being expert moral hair-splitters, they 
came to regard the Constitution as a shield for the protection 
of slavery, at least within the slave States, and authority for 
making every State in the Union hunting-ground for fugitive 
slaves. To justify this no-voting, non-action position they 
claimed that allegiance to a sinful government was sin, and 
as no human government on earth was perfect, they would 



12 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

acknowledge no government except one in heaven, of which 
" Border Ruffians " in Kansas had no conception. Being 
non-resistants themselves, they beheved they could dissolve 
the Union without bloodshed or resistance on the part of 
the Government, an error they recognized later when the 
slave States attempted it. 

As for the churches, they held every member accountable 
for the resolutions and utterances of synods, conventions, and 
prominent individuals of the different denominations. In 
the early days of the agitation many of these were in defense 
of slavery as a divine institution. 

Geo. W. Julian, candidate for Vice-President on the Free- 
Soil ticket in 1852, said, in his " Speeches on Political Ques- 
tions," page 79 : 

"What are our churches doing for the anti-slavery reform? Alas! 
the popular religion of the country lies imbedded in the politics and 
trade of the country. It has sunk to a dead level with the ruling secular 
influences of the age. It has ceased to be a power, practically capable 
of saving the world from its sins. * * * What are these religious 
bodies doing for the slave? As I have already said, they are breaking 
bread with his owner around the communion table. They are receiving 
slave-holders into full fellowship. The preachers and members of our 
Protestant denominations alone own over six hundred thousand slaves. 
The Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian all have divided on the slavery 
question, but both divisions tolerate slave-holding. * * * In all 
the late publications of the American Tract Society, I am informed that 
not a syllable can be found against slavery. Such sins as Sabbath- 
breaking, dancing, fine dressing, etc., are abundantly noticed and con- 
demned, but not even a whisper must go forth against the ' sum of all 
villainies.' " 

Two pamphlets were published, one entitled " The Ameri- 
can Chiu"ches the Bulwarks of American Slavery," and the 
other, "The Church as it is; the Forlorn Hope of Slavery." 
These pamphlets were wholly made up of testimony from 
the churches and church members themselves, and afford 
some excuse, at least, for the arraignment made by the no- 
church abolitionists. As the leading preachers defended the 
institution of slavery from the Bible, the abolitionists attacked 



ABOLITIONISTS. 



13 



that book as of no more authority than any other work of 
ancient origin. As the churches claimed the Sabbath as too 
holy to be used for anti-slavery work, that too was assailed 
as a mere human device ; and so on they went till not only 
the Constitution, but the Bible, churches, and the Sabbath 
were discarded and denounced. Much they said was mer- 
ited and just, but the main mistake they made was in not 
improving every opportunity offered to help the slave as 
they found him. If, instead of fighting the Constitution, the 
Union, and the chiu-ches as such, they had joined with all 
anti-slavery men, church members and others, and filled 
Congress and the presidential chair with men who would go 
to the limit of the Constitution in abolishing slavery in the 
District of Columbia and the Territories, as well as the 
coastwise slave trade, the road might have opened before 
them for the final extinction of slavery, leaving the Constitu- 
tion and the churches intact. Or, when beaten in Congress, 
they could have turned their attention to the settlement of 
Kansas, where the decisive battle of slavery was to be 
fought. Here was their irretrievable mistake. They were 
incapable of adapting their warfare to the changing condi- 
tions, and failed. While they were bombarding the Union 
and the churches, that they might reach the slave over their 
ruins, the door was thrown wide open, by way of Kansas, 
to the very citadel of the slave power, and that, too, under 
the sanction and protection of Constitution, Union, laws, 
and churches. Others saw this opening, entered it, and 
gained the victory, and to them must belong the credit. 
These men could see that the act organizing Kansas Ter- 
ritory opened every Territory and free State to slavery ; but 
could not or did not see that the same act equally opened 
every Territory and slave State to freedom, if the people of 
these Commonwealths respectively would have it so. The 
language will bear repeating a second time : " It being the 
true intent and meaning of the act not to legislate slavery 
into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom ; but 



14 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and reg- 
ulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject 
only to the Constitution of the United States." Here was 
a solemn pledge that Congress would not interfere to pre- 
vent the extension of freedom to every Territory and State 
of the Union, In this act the slave power overreached 
itself, and it was blunder number one in the " beginning of 
the end " of slavery. This the slave power did not see, 
neither did the norunion, no-voting abolitionists see it, but it 
was seen nevertheless, and turned to freedom's account, as 
will appear in the pages that follow. Charles Sumner said 
of the Kansas bill, that it was " at once the worst and the 
best bill on which Congress ever acted." It was the best 
bill, " for it annuls all past compromises with slavery, and 
makes all future compromises impossible. Thus it puts 
freedom and slavery face to face, and bids them grapple." 
Unfortunately, non-resistants would not use grappling-irons, 
and free States could not be made without votes. 

One other organization existed which opposed the exten- 
sion of slavery, called the Liberty or Free-soil party. The 
members of this organization were voters and fighters, if need 
were, but their party machinery w^as not adapted to mak- 
ing States. It had done good service in agitating the slavery 
question, and in securing the election to Congress of many 
able champions of freedom. Unlike the American Anti- 
slavery Society, this party was loyal to the Constitution and 
the Union. In the language of James G. Birney, their pres- 
idential candidate at two elections, they "regarded the 
Constitution with unabated affection. They hold in no 
common veneration the memory of those who made it. 
They would be the last to brand Franklin and King and 
Morris and Wilson and Sherman and Hamilton with the 
ineffaceable infamy of intending to engraft upon the Con- 
stitution, and therefore to perpetuate, a system of oppression 
in absolute antagonism to its high and professed objects. 
* * * In the political aspects of the question they have 



FREE-SOIL PARTY, 



15 



nothing to ask except what the Constitution authorizes — no 
change to desire but that the Constitution may be restored 
10 its pristine repubhcan purity." — "J. G. Birney and his 
Times," page 338. 

This party cast in 1840, for President, 7100 votes; in 
1844, 62,300; in 1848, 300,000; in 1852, 155,000. 

Besides members of this party, there were many belong- 
ing to the Whig and Democratic parties who were made 
indignant by the repeal of the Missoiu-i Compromise, and 
who were ready to abandon their party organizations in the 
nefarious work of extending the institution of slavery to ter- 
ritory that had been consecrated to freedom by solemn 
compact. There was no lack of anti-slavery sentiment, or 
of desire to save Kansas to freedom, but the political parties 
could only act in their legitimate sphere — elect Presidents, 
Congressmen, and other officials — while the work in hand 
now was something that pohtical parties, Congress, and the 
President could not do, and aid must be sought elsewhere, 
and other machinery invented. It is true, Hon. Geo, W. 
JuUan had said : 

" Does any one ask how we shall successfully wage war 
against this monster power ? I answer that American pol- 
itics and American religion are the bulwarks which support 
it, and that we must attack them. If we do this wisely and 
perseveringly we shall succeed. We need no new weapons, 
but only a faithful use of those we already possess, in more 
direct assaults upon these strongholds of the enemy." This 
was spoken in 1852, and the American Anti-slavery Society 
and the Free-Soil party had waged vigorous and persevering 
war with their rehgious and pohtical "weapons" till 1854, 
when every foot of territory in the United States was open 
to slavery. Evidently some new weapons must be found 
or the victory of the slave power would remain final and 
complete. 



CHAPTER II. 

WEAPONS AND MACHINERY NEEDED. SETTLERS REQUIRED. 

HOW SECURED, 

To understand what "weapons" and what machinery 
would be in demand in making a free State in Kansas, a 
survey of the field should be taken. The Organic Act left 
to the voters of the Territory the settlement of the question 
of slavery in the State. The first step in making a State was 
to elect a territorial Legislature, that might provide for a 
constitutional convention, which in turn could frame a con- 
stitution authorizing or forbidding slavery. The way was 
plain. But one road was open for making a free State, and 
that, and that only, must be travelled. Colonizing slaves in 
Africa, shouting " no union with slave-holders " in Boston, 
preaching the Wilmot Proviso in Congress, and poHtical 
campaigns in the States, were of no avail in the pending 
struggle. Voters must be had, and as no person but a set- 
tler would have the right to vote, settlers were of the first 
importance. How could they be secured? Would they 
come from the free States in sufficient numbers to outvote 
those who should come from the slave States? The decree 
of the slave power had gone forth that Kansas should be a 
slave State, and that power in Church and State, in Synod 
and Congress, was omnipotent. Could it be successfully 
encountered in Kansas? If the eloquence of Phillips, Gar- 
rison, Sumner, and Seward was of no avail, what could be 
hoped from untitled, unheralded, and unknown settlers? 
AVho would have the presumption to enter the lists ? Slavery 
had every advantage. A slave State bordered Kansas on 



THE ISSUE. 17 

the east containing a population sufficient in numbers and 
daring to settle several new Territories. This population, 
bold, blustering, and reckless like the people of most fron- 
tier settlements, was thoroughly aroused to the importance 
of the conflict. Two billions of dollars worth of property 
in slaves, besides the domestic relations of the people of the 
Southern States, were involved. The life or death of slavery 
was the issue, and was recognized to be the issue by both 
North and South. The Charleston, S. C, Mercury presented 
the question as follows : 

" First. By consent of parties, the present contest in Kansas is made 
the turning-point in the destinies of slavery and abolition. If the 
South triumphs, abolitionism will be defeated and shorn of its power 
for all time. If she is defeated, abolition will grow more insolent and 
aggressive, until the utter ruin of the South is consummated. 

" Second. If the South secures Kansas, she will extend slavery into 
all the territory south of the fortieth parallel of north latitude, to the 
Rio Grande, and this, of course, will secure for her pent-up institution 
of slavery an ample outlet, and restore her power in Congress. If the 
North secures Kansas, the power of the South in Congress will gradu- 
ally be diminished, the States of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ar- 
kansas, and Texas, together with the adjacent Territories, will gradually 
become abolitionized, and the slave population confined to the States 
east of the Mississippi will become valueless. All depends upon the 
action of the present moment." 

This issue was accepted by the people in the border coun- 
ties of Missouri, and they were at first troubled with no fears 
for the result. They were jubilant, bold, and defiant, threat- 
ening with death any anti-slavery man who should attempt 
to settle in the Territory. In less than a month after the 
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, the writer started for 
Kansas to arrange for its settlement. On passing Jefferson 
City, the capital of Missouri, on the 4th of July, several 
prominent politicians came on board the steamer, and among 
them General Stringfellow. In the conversation it was as- 
sumed as a foregone conclusion that the fate of Kansas 
was sealed. It was boldly asserted that " no damned aboli- 
tionist would be permitted to settle in Kansas, and every 



1 8 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

man north of Mason and Dixon's line was an abolitionist." 
On reaching Kansas City a reward was found offered for 
" one Eli Thayer, a leading and ruling spirit among the 
abolitionists of New York and New England. * * * 
Representing all the abolitionists, he consequently bears all 
their sins ! " 

General D. R. Atchison was the recognized leader of the 
pro-slavery cause, and most of the leading politicians and 
citizens of western Missouri were his co-workers. Such was 
the condition of the border, while the administration at 
Washington was wholly devoted to the establishment of 
slavery in Kansas, Jefferson Davis being Secretary of War. 
In the North and East the outlook was equally gloomy. 
The American Anti-slavery Society never had any faith in 
saving Kansas to freedom, Wendell Phillips said, as re- 
ported in the Liberator : 

" Talk about stopping the progress of slavery and of saving Nebraska 
and Kansas ! Why, the fate of Nebraska and Kansas was sealed the 
first hour Stephen Arnold Douglas consented to play his perfidious 
part. * * * The moment you throw the struggle with slavery into 
the half-barbarous West, where things are decided by the revolver and 
bowie-knife, slavery triumphs." 

Mr. Garrison said : 

" While the Union continues, the slave power will have everything 
its own way, in the last resort. * * * Slavery is certain to go into 
Kansas, nay, slaves are now carried there daily, and offered for sale 
with impunity. * * * Will Kansas be a free State? We answer, 
no. Not while the existing Union stands. Its fate is settled, 
■* * * Eastern emigration will avail nothing to keep slavery out of 
Kansas. We have never had any faith in it as a breakwater against the 
inundations of the dark waters of oppression. * * * The omnipres- 
ent power of the general Government will co-operate with the vandals 
of Missouri to crush out what little anti-slavery sentiment may exist in 
Kansas, and to sustain their lawless proceedings in that Territory. This 
will prove decisive in the struggle." 

Theodore Parker, in Music Hall, said : 

" In the steady triumph of despotism, ten years more like the ten 
years past and it will be all over with the liberties of America. Every- 



DISCOURAGEMENT. 1 9 

thing must go down, and the heel of the tyrant will be on our necks. 
It will be all over with the rights of man in America, and you and I 
must go to Australia, to Italy, or to Siberia for our freedom, or perish 
with the liberty which our fathers fought for and secured to themselves, 
not to their faithless sons. Shall America thus miserably perish? Such 
is the aspect of things to-day." 

Mr. Thayer, in his "Kansas Crusade," says: 
" On May 30, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska bill, containing the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise, was signed by President Pierce, and be- 
came the law of the land. When this news reached the Northern States 
the bells were tolled for the death of freedom. The slave States, with 
thirty-five years of political supremacy and the prestige of this last great 
victory over the North, with perfect discipline and irresistible power, 
were confident of undisputed control in the Government for generations 
to come. They already had the Chief Executive, his Cabinet, the Su- 
preme Court, both houses of Congress, and the army and navy to do 
their bidding. Great as was their present power, their prospective 
power was even more alarming. Kansas and Nebraska, with all the 
Territories west and south of them, were to become slave States. Five 
more were to be made of Texas. The purpose of acquiring Cuba and 
Central America for their further aggrandizement was developing into 
action. Why, then, should the South doubt for an instant the certainty 
of her perpetual power? In a few years her Senators in Congress 
would nearly double the number from the North. Their skill in diplo- 
macy and politics, acquired by unremitting practice and study, much 
excelled that of the Northern people, whose minds were occupied by a 
manifold system of industries requiring constant attention, as well as 
by a great number of social, commercial, charitable, religious, and 
educational organizations. No wonder that we were hopeless and help- 
less. We had no political organization of any strength to oppose to 
slavery. * * * During all this period of the successful aggressive 
and increasing strength of slavery, there was in the North corresponding 
apprehension and alarm. On the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
the apprehension became despondency, and the alarm became despair. 
* * * The speeches in Congress and the editorials of influential 
journalists prove that there was no hope of rescuing Kansas from the 
grasp of this resistless power, should the Kansas-Nebraska bill become 
a law." 

While this is a faithful presentation of the effects of the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise upon the North as a 
whole, there were many minds upon which that repeal pro- 



20 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

duced other results. Conservative men, especially members 
of the Whig party, were shocked at the bad faith shown by 
their Southern colleagues in Congress — only one of whom 
voted against the Kansas bill — and felt the necessity of seek- 
ing other party affiliations. For over thirty years all parties 
had acquiesced in the settlement of the vexed question by 
the compromise of 1820, although the North felt that it had 
been overreached in the bargain, and now, after the South 
had received its full consideration, to have the bargain re- 
pudiated was too much for even " hunker " Whigs of the 
North to accept in silence. 

Free-soil men also were aroused with fresh zeal, and de- 
termined to take the case to the people in all future elec- 
tions and demand reparation for this bad faith. Congress- 
man Meacham, of Vermont, said: 

" I look on that compromise as a contract, as a thing done for a con- 
sideration, and that the parties to that contract are bound in honor to 
execute it in good faith. The consideration on one side was paid and 
received in advance." 

This was the view generally taken at the North, although 
combated by some members of Congress from the South. 
Mr. Goodrich, of Massachusetts, said, " If the Kansas bill 
should pass, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise would 
wipe out as with a sponge all compromises " ; and Mr. 
Campbell, of Ohio, said he would wage " an unrelenting 
war against slavery to the furthermost limits of the Consti- 
tution." Many Southern people disapproved of the repeal, 
and warned slave-holders to beware of the agitation it would 
create. Mr. Houston, of Texas, called upon the Southern 
Senators, " to regard the contract once made to harmonize 
and preserve the Union. Maintain the Missouri Compro- 
mise ! Stir not up agitation ! Give us peace ! Union or 
disunion depends upon the decision of this question." 

Eli Thayer, in his " Crusade," says, " The South, stimu- 
lated unreasonably by her former success, ventured foolishly 
to overthrow a time-honored compact, and subject herself to 



MACHINERY REQUIRED. 21 

a charge of bad faith. In the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise she illustrated the words of the sacred writer : ' Pride 
goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall' 
By this act she had made it possible to combine all political 
parties in the North against the extension of slavery, should 
the right method of doing this great work be well presented 
and faithfully lu-ged. All were ready now to rebuke the 
arrogance of slavery, and also to end its existence, if that 
could be done in accordance with the Constitution and the 
Union." 

But a combination of all political parties for mere political 
action would not avail to save Kansas. It is true that, within 
one year of the repeal of the compromise, eleven Senators 
and 1 20 of the 142 Northern members of the House were 
elected who repudiated the repeal, but even this number 
could accomplish nothing in Congress. There was now but 
one way of salvation for Kansas, and that was not through 
the executive, legislative, or judicial departments of the 
Government, through anti-slavery societies or political or- 
ganizations, but the promised land, as of old, must be secured 
by taking possession of it, or not at all. How could this be 
done ? Here were bowie-knives, pistols, shot-guns, rifles, 
and cannon in the hands of the Philistines on the border and 
within the Territory, under direction of " Blue Lodges," 
" Sons of the South," and other secret organizations, and the 
attempt to occupy the land by the ordinary methods of pio- 
neer settlement would have been as futile as for the Israelites 
thus to have taken possession of Canaan. Nothing short of 
concerted action by the friends of freedom could avail, and 
that could be secured only by organization. Where could 
an organizer be found 1 Garrison and Phillips were the great 
anti-slavery agitators, but neither had faith in success. Like 
the men who were sent to spy out the land of Canaan, they 
predicted that the land would " eat up " the Free-State men ; 
"all the people we saw in it are men of great statiu-e. And 
there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of 



2 2 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, 
and so we were in their sight." And all the anti-slavery 
society to which they belonged agreed with them, and would 
have nothing to do with taking possession of Kansas. But 
there were two of the spies, named Joshua and Caleb, that, 
when they heard this gloomy report, rent their clothes. 
"And they spake unto all the company of the children of 
Israel, saying, the land which we passed through to search 
it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, 
then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us ; a land 
which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel ye not 
against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land ; for 
they are bread for us ; their defense is departed from them, 
and the Lord is with us ; fear them not." Some of the 
Joshuas and Calebs of the emigration to Kansas are named 
in Mr. Hale's "Kansas and Nebraska," pubhshed in 1854. 
On page 219 he says : 

" Mr. Eli Thayer, a member of the Massachusetts House of Repre- 
sentatives, circulated a petition, in the month of March, 1854, for the 
incorporation, by the general Court of Massachusetts, of the Massachu- 
setts Emigrant Aid Company. The petition was at once granted by the 
Legislature, and a charter given, of which the first section reads — 

"'Sec. I. Benjamin C. Clark, Isaac Livermore, Charles Allen, Isaac 
Davis, William G. Bates, Steven C. Phillips, Charles C. Hazewell, 
Alexander H. Bullock, Henry Wilson, James S. Whitney, Samuel E. 
Sewall, Samuel G. Howe, James Holland, Moses Kimball, James D. 
Green, Francis W. Bird, Otis Clapp, Anson Burlingame, Eli Thayer, 
and Otis Rich, their associates, successors, and assigns, are hereby 
made a corporation, by the name of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid 
Company, for the purpose of assisting emigrants to settle in the West ; 
and for this purpose they have all the powers and privileges, and be 
subject to all the duties, restrictions, and liabilities set forth in the 
thirty-eighth and forty-fourth chapters of the revised statutes.' 

" The charter was signed by the Governor on the 26th day of April, 
and took effect immediately. The persons named in it, and others 
interested, met at the State House, in Boston, on the 4th of May, ac- 
cepted the charter, and appointed a committee to report a plan of organ- 
ization and system of operations. The committee consisted of Eli 
Thayer, Alexander H. Bullock, and E. E. Hale, of Worcester, Richard 



EMIGRANT AID COMPANY. 23 

Hildreth and Otis Clapp, of Boston, who submitted the following report 
at an adjourned meeting ; ' * * * The inconveniences and dangers 
to health to which the pioneer is subject who goes out alone or with his 
family only, in making a new settlement, are familiar to every American. 
The Emigrant Aid Company has been incorporated to protect emigrants, 
as far as may be, from such inconveniences. Its duty is to organize 
emigration to the West and bring it into system. * * * With the 
advantages attained by such a system of effort, the territory selected as 
the scene of operations would, it is believed, at once fill up with free 
inhabitants. * * * It determines in the right way the institutions 
of the unsettled Territories, in less time than the discussion of them has 
required in Congress. * * * It is impossible that such a region 
should not fill up rapidly. The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company 
proposes to give confidence to settlers, by giving system to emigration. 
By dispelling the fears that Kansas will be a slave State, the company 
will remove the only bar which now hinders its occupation by free 
settlers. It is to be hoped that similar companies will be formed in 
other free States. The enterprise is of that character, that for those 
who first enter it, the more competition the better.' This report was 
signed by Eli Thayer for the committee." 

By reason of objections to some of the provisions of the 
charter it was not made use of, and three trustees, EH 
Thayer, Amos A. Lawrence, and J. M. S. WiUiams, conducted 
the business of emigration during the season of 1854. An 
organization was made in 1855, under another charter, called 
the New England Emigrant Aid Company, with the follow- 
ing officers : President, John Carter Brown, Providence ; 
Vice-Presidents, Eli Thayer, Worcester, J. M. S. Williams, 
Cambridge; Treasurer, Amos A. Lawrence, Boston; Secre- 
tary, Thomas H. Webb, Boston. 

Other emigration societies and leagues were formed in 
several Northern States, inspiring great faith in the ultimate 
success of freedom in Kansas. While these organizations 
furnished inspiration and moral support, their pecuniary 
means were limited, and of secondary importance. The re- 
port that the New England Society had a capital of $5,000,000 
struck the South with terror, and inspired the North with 
hope, although in fact its capital was limited at first to a few 
thousand dollars advanced by its treasurer, Amos A. Law- 



24 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

rence. History will give to Eli Thayer the credit of jforst 
pubhcly accepting the challenge of the South with a plan for 
organized emigration to contend with the Blue Lodges of 
Missouri, and for his head was the first reward offered by 
the exasperated slave power. But organized emigration was 
not alone in the conflict. While Thayer began to preach 
the crusade in the winter of 1854, a few settlers from the 
Middle and Western States preceded his first colony which 
settled at Lawrence. Most noted among these were S. N. 
Wood, J. A. Wakefield, B. W. Miller, Rev. T. Ferril, and 
others, who acted a most important part in the struggle that 
followed. In truth, no line of demarkation can well be drawn 
between settlers who came from different States, or under 
different auspices, as on arrival they became a band of brothers 
engaged in a common cause. It would be folly for the head 
to say to the foot, I have no need of thee ; and the eye to 
the hand, I have no need of thee ; and it would have been 
equal folly for settlers from one State to say to the set- 
tlers of another State that the cause had no need of them. 
No such feeling existed in the fifties, neither does it now 
exist in the breast of any surviving actor. Colonel S. N. 
Wood, whose settlement in Kansas preceded the settlement 
of Lawrence, and whose services were indispensable, has 
this to say of the pioneers, in his quarter-centennial speech 
at Topeka : 

" The pilgrims of the Mayflmver sought the wild shores of America 
that they might be free to worship God in their own way ; free to believe 
in religious matters whatever seemed right to their own conscience. 
They sought freedom for themselves. But the pioneers of Kansas — 
both Western and Eastern — heard the call which in every age has thrilled 
the souls of men with heroic power. At this critical period, when the 
hosts of slavery and freedom were marshalling for this great and de- 
cisive encounter, in their inmost souls they heard the Divine voice 
calling for defenders of liberty ; and they obeyed the signal that pointed 
to Kansas as the great battle-ground. The pioneers who became 
trusted leaders among the Free-State hosts were men who could not 
rest in their old comfortable homes when the demon of human slavery 
was clutching at freedom's rightful heritage. Many of them were the 



EMIGRANT AID COMPANY. 



25 



sons of the old anti-slavery agitators, and had learned from child- 
hood to hate slavery and to love freedom, and claim it as the right 
of all men, races, and conditions. These men, meeting upon our prai- 
ries for the first time, recognized each other as kindred spirits. They 
spoke the same language, and were working for the same good pur- 
pose." 



CHAPTER III. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTESTANTS. EASTERN AND WEST- 
ERN SETTLERS. THE OVERLAND ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA 

IN 1849. THE SACRAMENTO RIOT. 

Something of the nature of the conflict in Kansas may be 
learned from the characteristics of the contestants. Settlers 
from the North and East came from communities where per- 
son and property were protected by law, and the carrying of 
weapons for self-defense was unknown. Many had come to 
look even upon war among nations as a relic of barbarism. 
Not a few of the Kansas emigrants had imbibed something 
of the views and spirit of the non-resistant agitators, and 
were disposed to interpret the teachings of the Nazarene 
literally, to return good for evil, when one cheek should be 
smitten to turn the other to the smiter, and if compelled to 
part with their coats, to give their cloaks also. As a rule, the 
Free-State settlers were averse to a resort to physical force in 
the settlement of any conflict, much less a conflict purely 
moral and political. These were some of the characteristics 
of the Northern settlers while at home, but they were found 
imsuited to a Southern and Western climate. It was found 
that the precepts of Christianity, including non-resistance, 
might work admirably where all were Christians and non-re- 
sistants, but it was also discovered that the devil would flee 
only when resisted, and that pearls were not suitable diet for 
all animals and on all occasions. 

The South and Southwest were in many respects most un- 
like the East and North. Where a large class was to be kept 
in servitude, nothing but physical force would avail. Hence 



CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTESTANTS. 27 

deadly weapons and personal prowess were indispensable, 
and the man who would pass current as a gentleman must 
be prepared at all times to protect his person and his honor 
by force. Also in the new West, in the absence of the civil 
code, every man was a law unto himself and constituted in 
his own person judge, jury, and executioner. In such a 
community human life, instead of being sacred as in the 
North and East, was cheap, and could be sacrificed at any 
time to resent personal insult and to protect peculiar institu- 
tions, if not for sordid gain. At the same time the better 
class of the citizens of the South had a high sense of honor, 
and could not be excelled in any part of the country for 
civility, courtesy, hospitality, and business integrity. 

Perhaps life in the newly settled West, and the mingling 
of the two civilizations as found in the law-abiding East and 
the go-as-you-please West, cannot better be illustrated than 
by giving an outline picture of the early days of California, 
from 1849 to 1 85 1. As the Eastern emigration to that Ter- 
ritory largely passed through Missouri and Kansas Territory, 
drawing with it a large emigration from Missouri itself and 
the South, many things happened that had an important 
bearing upon the conflict in Kansas at a later date. This 
outline is the more important as it will serve to give the 
squatters' side of the most exciting conflict in the history of 
California, which has never been given by one of their 
number, although published and republished, iterated and 
reiterated indefinitely by their opponents. There is no bet- 
ter way to exhibit human nature unrestrained by law, and 
the mingling of the Eastern and Western civilizations, than 
by giving a brief narrative of that conflict. 

On the discovery of gold in California, in 1848, the whole 
country was in a blaze of excitement, and men of all classes 
and conditions had symptoms of the gold fever, more or less 
well marked. Even staid New England did not escape the 
epidemic. In the winter of 1849 a party of some forty per- 
sons was organized in the vicinity of Boston for the purpose 



28 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

of emigration to the land of gold. This party was com- 
posed of men of all classes and professions, including trades- 
men, clerks, manufacturers, mechanics, farmers, and laborers. 
It was organized in the form of a military company, with 
a full list of officers from captain down. The privates and 
non-commissioned officers wore gray uniforms, while the 
commissioned officers wore navy-blue. An assessment Avas 
made upon each member, and all property was purchased 
and controlled by the officers. Among the number was a 
physician, by the name of Robinson, who was to be exempt 
from all duty except the care of the sick. The doctor, de- 
siring rest from an extensive practice, was in pursuit of rec- 
reation quite as much as of gold. He had been interested 
in the peace and anti-slavery discussions of that day, and 
was in theory a non-resistant and abolitionist. The party 
left Boston in the winter of 1849, travelling by railroad and 
canal to Pittsburg, and thence by steamboat to Kansas City, 
or Westport Landing. The name of the boat was Ne Plus 
Ultra, and it was engaged for the whole river journey. It 
stopped long enough at Cincinnati for the doctor to pur- 
chase a beautiful cream-colored horse and a clarionet, and 
at St. Louis for the purchase of supplies and to receive pas- 
sengers, chiefly gold-seekers. Some members of the party 
had seen much of the world, Avhile many were unsophisti- 
cated and unsuspicious. These latter, when they paid their 
assessments, paid tuition in a school of more varied knowl- 
edge and experience than can be found in any professed 
place of education. There was a new lesson for each day, 
and every lesson must be learned by heart. Drones and 
truants were impossible, and at the end of the journey, on 
the western coast, every member was a graduate, and had 
witnessed or experienced more arts, devices, shifts and turns, 
deeds of daring, honor, integrity, perfidy, rascality, and devil- 
try than all the educational institutions of the land could 
have shown. On leaving St. Louis the boat was well filled 
with passengers and their " plunder." The Boston party were 



ON MISSOURI RIVER. CHOLERA. 29 

now in a decided minority of the passengers, and relatively- 
lost their importance, although still distinguished from other 
passengers by their uniform. It being generally known that 
the Boston party had a physician with them, his services 
were sought on all occasions of sickness and among all 
classes of passengers. The boat had not proceeded far on 
its journey up the muddy Missouri River when the cholera 
made its appearance on board. Here was a new experience 
for the doctor. While he had read much of the disease, its 
cause, symptoms, and treatment, he had never met with a 
case in his practice. Without a medical library, and with 
but a limited variety and supply of medicines, he was thrown 
upon his own resources, and accordingly made an object les- 
son of the first case. It was found that all the fluids of the 
body were leaving the surface and poiu-ing into the alimen- 
tary canal. The features became pinched and anxious, the 
skin pallid and bloodless, and the muscles of the extremities 
were aiTected with painful cramps. What was to be done ? 
Evidently the first thing to be done was to reverse the vas- 
cular and absorbent machinery, and send the fluids back to 
the surface and other parts of the system, and relieve cramps. 
What would accomplish this result, and did the medicine- 
chest contain the required remedy ? On examination, the 
doctor found tincture of opium (laudanum), tincture of cam- 
phor, and compound tincture of capsicum (hot drops). The 
first two would have a tendency to send the fluids to the 
brain and surface and relieve spasms, while the last would 
excite action of the vascular and absorbent systems. Ac- 
cordingly, these tinctures were taken in a mixtxire of equal 
parts, and administered in teaspoonful doses once in fifteen 
minutes, more or less, according to symptoms, till the flow 
of fluids should be reversed and the cramps cease. Fortu- 
nately, this treatment proved successful in every case where 
applied on first attack of the disease. 

Another object lesson was given on this boat which has 
not been forgotten. As the steamer was about to leave St. 



30 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Louis, four men came on board in a somewhat free-and-easy 
manner, occasioned by a free indulgence in the fashionable 
beverage of the city. One of these men proved to be a man 
from Illinois, on his way to California, and the other three 
were residents of St. Louis, and evidently blacklegs. The 
man from Illinois was said to have $i 500, which he deposited 
with the clerk of the boat. As soon as the boat was well 
under way, these four men engaged in card-playing, which 
was diligently prosecuted early and late. Large sums of 
money were bet and nearly always won by one of the three 
men from St. Louis, at the expense of the Illinoisan. The 
unsophisticated members of the Boston party had read of 
gambling and desperate characters in the South and West, 
particularly on board of river steamers, and some of them 
became close observers of the game, especially the doctor, 
whose state-room was near the gamblers' table. It was ob- 
served that drinks were often ordered, and that the Illinois 
man was kept in a jolly frame of mind, while the St. Louis 
men were cool and sober. On the evening of the first or 
second day the playing became more earnest and the drink- 
ing more frequent, till the Illinois man became desperate, 
and all left the table and went to the bar, where another drink 
was called for, but declined at first by the victim. But after 
being bantered and coaxed, he emptied his glass, as did the 
others. At this stage the doctor retired to his state-room, but 
not to sleep, for while conning this lesson in all its bearings, 
he was called to prescribe for this man, who had been drugged 
and was desperately ill. Spasms and convulsions set in, 
accompanied with groans and yells, till it became necessary 
to remove him to the pilot-house that the passengers might 
not be disturbed. Before many hours had passed the poor 
man died in terrible agony. The boat soon after went ashore 
and his body was left. An inventory was had of his effects, 
and no money except a small bill in his vest-pocket was 
found. A boat going down the river was hailed, and the 
three gamblers went aboard ; and thus ended this object 



JEALOUSIES OF OFFICERS. 3 1 

lesson, which was an eye-opener to the Doctor, and played 
havoc with his non-resistant theories. The Wyandotte Indian 
agent was on the boat, who was also a doctor, and well 
understood the case. When the Yankee Doctor proposed to 
have complaint made and these men punished, the Indian 
agent told him he was wild. He must remember that there 
was virtually no law that could or would reach the case ; 
besides, if these men even had a suspicion that such a move 
was contemplated, the Doctor would be put where he could 
not be summoned as a witness. Also, should complaint be 
made, he would be retained as a witness, and would have to 
postpone his trip to California till after the trial, which might 
be delayed for a year. After fully digesting the case, with 
all its surroundings, it was concluded that one man could 
not remedy all the evils in the world at once. 

At length the Ne Plus Ultra reached its destination, West- 
port Landing, or Kansas City, in the latter part of March or 
first of April. Here was a new experience. Like all joint- 
stock companies, made up of all classes and characters of in- 
dependent, intelligent Yankees, no sooner was the journey 
commenced than the officers in control were subjects of suspi- 
cion, jealousies, innuendoes, reflections, and open charges of 
incapacity, inefficiency, crookedness, theft, and robbery. The 
farther removed from home and home influences, the louder 
the complaints, until on landing at Kansas City a general mu- 
tiny prevailed. No settlement of difficulties could be reached 
without a division of the party and a consequent division of 
the tons of supplies. Accordingly, two parties were organ- 
ized, and a committee of three, of which the Doctor was one, 
was appointed to divide the "plunder." This quarrel and 
division, with the purchase of teams, consumed some four 
or five weeks of time, or till the first week in May. This 
delay afforded an excellent opportunity to study the pecul- 
iarities of the people, their habits and institutions. The 
doctor, with some other members of the party, prociu-ed 
board with a thrifty farmer several miles on the road to In- 



32 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

dependence, and there took lessons in Western farming and 
stock-raising. His time was fully occupied, for not only was 
a division of the supplies to be made between the two par- 
ties, and teams to be purchased, but calls for his professional 
services were frequent. During the first night after the party 
landed at Kansas City, nine of the citizens were attacked 
with cholera and died. The little hamlet was panic-stricken. 
Several physicians were in the place, but all had failed to 
save their patients. It became known in the morning that 
the Doctor of the Boston party had been successful in several 
cases on the boat while coming up the river, and his services 
were at once in demand. This demand did not cease till he 
started on his trip across the plains. The last case treated 
was that of a young physician who was a victim to the dis- 
ease. The Doctor remained with him the entire night, until 
favorable symptoms appeared, when he joined the party 
ready to begin their long journey. Whether this physician 
died or recovered, the Doctor never learned till in the heat 
of the Kansas conflict, in 1856. There is reason to believe 
that this stay of some four or five weeks at Kansas City, in 
the spring of 1849, had an important influence on the strug- 
gle of 1854, 1855, and 1856, in Kansas Territory. The 
Yankees were thus enabled to learn some of the peculiarities 
of the border men, and they in turn of the Yankees. Each 
class bestowed and received favors, and parted with mutual 
good-will when the time came for the Yankees to pursue 
their journey. This good-will in some instances was unin- 
terrupted, as will later appear, during all the border troubles 
in Kansas. 

On the loth of May, the two parties had completed their 
organizations, apportioned the property, procured their 
teams, and were ready to launch their " prairie schooners." 
One party had procured mules and the other oxen for motive 
power. Both mules and oxen were unbroken to the harness 
or yoke, with a few exceptions, as were most of the men in 
the parties unused to handling them. The experiences in 



SUNDAY TRAVELLING. 



33 



hitching up, starting and driving these wild animals afforded 
much amusement as well as many hard knocks, mingled with 
the Western vernacular, which was learned and adopted by 
the drivers with remarkable alacrity. As the steers had had 
no Yankee schoohng, and had not learned the definitions of 
the terms whoa, haw, and gee, the members of the party 
marched in irregular order on both sides of the teams, thus 
guiding them in the way they should go. At the short tiu-ns 
in the road, and the crossing of creeks and ravines, there 
was usually a revolt that sometimes lasted half a day. At 
night the steers would be unhitched from the wagons, but 
not unyoked, as to unyoke and yoke these teams on the open 
prairie at first would require twenty out of the twenty-four 
hours, leaving but four hours in which to eat and sleep, and 
no time for travel. On the first Saturday of the joiu-ney, 
darkness came on before reaching water, and the party 
camped on the high prairie. The next morning, on investi- 
gation, it was found that the Wakarusa Creek was some two 
or three miles away, and the teams must be hitched up and 
driven that distance, at least, although it was Sunday. So 
much was a work of necessity, and the strictest Puritan in 
the party acquiesced. But, after reaching the creek and 
watering the stock, the question arose, shall the party go fur- 
ther. Here was the first clash of Yankee theological steel. 
The discussion was, however, brief, and a vote of the party 
settled the question in favor of further travel. But the triumph 
of the Sunday travellers was brief, as in going through a de- 
pression, near the place where the town of Franklin was after- 
wards located, the chain between the cattle became slackened 
and twisted about a steer's leg. When the chain was straight- 
ened, it gave such a twist to the leg as to disable it. Here 
was a judgment of God for breaking the Sabbath. No fur- 
ther progress could be made that day, except in theological 
discussion. One party claimed that it was a direct interpo- 
sition to punish Sabbath-breaking, while the other put the 

accident to the account of too long coupling-chains and bad 
3 



34 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

driving. One party appealed to the Decalogue, and the 
other called for its reading. When it was found that the 
seventh day, instead of the first, was enjoined to be observed, 
and that for a special reason which applied only to the Jews, 
an appeal was made to the New Testament, where it was 
claimed the command was made applicable to the first day 
of the week. The discussion was closed, on one side, by 
offering a dollar for every word in the New Testament en- 
joining the observance of any day as a Sabbath, and, on the 
other, by devoting the remainder of the day in searching the 
Testament. No claim was ever made for the prize money, 
and these sticklers for Sabbath observance were afterwards 
seen betting at monte in Sacramento, having evidently lost 
their Puritanic scruples. Persons who depend upon outside 
pressure for religion are apt to adopt the customs of their 
stu"roundings when that pressure is removed ; while the per- 
son who is governed by his own convictions of what is right 
and what is wrong, regardless of public opinion and public 
custom, will be but slightly influenced by externals. 

As the Boston party travelled by river from Pittsburg to 
Kansas City, they saw nothing of prairie land till starting out 
across Kansas Territory. The second day, the i ith of May, 
was a revelation. No such landscape had ever blessed their 
vision. One of the party described the country and his sen- 
sations in his diary, as follows : 

"May nth, 1849. — Our course to-day has been over the rolling 
prairie, and we passed along without difficulty. The prairie seems to 
be an endless succession of rolls, with a smooth, green surface, dotted 
all over with most beautiful flowers. The soil is of the most rich and 
fertile character, with no waste land. The feelings that come over a 
person, as he first views this immense ocean of land, are indescribable. 
As far as the eye can reach, he sees nothing but a beautiful green car- 
pet, save here and there perhaps a cluster of trees ; he hears nothing but 
the feathered songsters of the air, and/tY/s nothing but a solemn awe 
in view of this infinite display of creative power. 

" 13th. — Turned out this morning at four o'clock, to watch the cattle. 
Went up on a high roll of land, where I had an extensive and enchant- 
ing view of this seemingly boundless and ever-varying prairie. The 



INSUBORDINATION OF EMIGRANTS. 35 

sun is rising out of this sea of land in the east, a line of timber skirts 
Cedar Creek to the N.E., also Spoon Creek to the N.W., while still 
further on, in the same direction, is seen a thick fog, marking the 
course of the Kansas River. All is still save the grazing of the cattle, 
and the concert of birds, which is composed of a great variety of song- 
sters. The cooing of the prairie hens, heard in every direction, con- 
stitutes the bass ; the loud cawing of the crows, the tenor ; the fine, 
sweet voices of the ground and small birds, the treble ; and a noise as 
of distant wild geese, the alto. 

" 23d. — Passed a little creek of pure cold water, about twelve M., 
where we found a newly made grave. Ascended a high bluff near the 
creek, where I had a most delightful view of the country to a great 
distance. I was reminded of the view of the Connecticut River valley 
from Mt. Holyoke. There is this difference, however — while one is 
circumscribed by hills and forests, the other is illimitable in extent, and 
stretches from the rising to the setting sun ; and while one is striped 
and checked with corn-fields and meadows like a carpet, the other is 
capable of being checked as numerously with States and nations." 

The Boston party that left Kansas City in two divisions, 
before reaching Cahfornia found itself in numerous subdivis- 
ions. In all his learning the Yankee had never learned the 
lesson of subordination. So long as dynamite cartridges will 
explode under favoring circumstances, so long will explo- 
sions occur in Yankee parties on a joint-stock basis while 
traversing a wilderness in piu'suit of gold. The Israelites 
were not Yankees, and they had been long disciplined by 
the Egyptian task-master, but nevertheless they made the life 
of Moses a burden to him on their journey to the promised 
land. In consequence of these explosions of the Yankee 
party, but a few hundred miles had been travelled when the 
Doctor found himself one of a party of three persons, includ- 
ing himself, and all on horseback, with pack animals for their 
supphes. It seemed necessary that there should be at least 
two persons in every party, or this party of three would have 
been divided again. This journey was most favorable for 
developing traits, not only of human nature, but also of 
equine nature. The Doctor's horse, purchased at Cincinnati, 
proved to be as docile and affectionate as he was beautiful. 



36 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Whenever the Doctor appeared he would leave his grazing 
and place his head over the shoulder of his owner in an affec- 
tionate and caressing manner. Wherever the party camped, 
that was his home, and there was no danger of his taking 
voluntary leave. One incident that occm-red, among many, 
will be given in honor of the race to which this'horse, Charley 
by name, belonged. On reaching the north fork of the 
Platte River, it was found to be swollen and the current 
swift. Some place must be found, if possible, where it could 
be forded, as the pack animals could not well keep afloat 
with their luggage. Charley, as usual on such occasions, 
was in requisition for experiments. Several places were 
tried, but no fording discovered. At one place, when deep 
water was reached, in the struggle rider and horse became 
separated. The horse crossed the river, but on seeing the 
man struggling in the swift current, he neighed anxiously, 
and plunged into the stream again, reaching an island in the 
river at the same time with his owner, who was completely 
exhausted. The horse came and stood over him till he was 
sufficiently rested to ride to the main-land. It is unnecessary 
to say that the owner's attachment to his horse was stronger 
than that he had for his human companions, for the horse 
showed an affection which they did not, and when, at the 
squatter riot in Sacramento, Charley was killed in the fight, 
his death caused his owner a pang of regret greater than did 
the bullet that passed through his own body. 

The incidents of this overland journey are not, for the 
most part, germane to the main subject of this book ; but the 
Land or Squatter Riots of Sacramento are worth describing 
here, both because the truth about them has never been 
publicly told, and because this conflict in California was a 
prototype of the later conflict in Kansas, having many points 
of resemblance, and having been prosecuted by similar, and 
some of the same, characters. 

After a journey of some three months, fragments of the 
Boston party began to arrive in California, and a small 



IN CALIFORNIA. 37 

detachment, including Dr. Robinson, stopped on Bear Creek 
for the purpose of washing out the precious metal. Af- 
ter some two weeks, Sacramento City was visited for sup- 
plies. Here, at the junction of the Sacramento and American 
' rivers, seemed to be the head of navigation for shipping of 
all kinds, and a prosperous town was destined to grow up. 
Meals, consisting of meat and bread, were selling at from 
seventy-five cents to one dollar and a half each, and lodg- 
ings in proportion. It was apparent that more gold could 
be procured at Sacramento at such prices than on Bear 
Creek, and a partnership was soon formed and an eating,- 
house opened. As mining at this time was confined to the 
bars in the creeks and rivers, as soon as the rainy season set 
in these bars were covered with water, and the miners sought 
the towns for winter quarters. During this season, in 1849, 
in the absence of vegetables and variety of food, many emi- 
grants were on the sick list, and had to be cared for by 
the more fortunate or suffer and die alone in their tents or 
cabins. These tents, shanties, and cabins, were scattered 
over the unoccupied lands in and around Sacramento, and 
the proprietors of the Boston party eating-house furnished 
both food and medicine to many of these unfortunates. In 
the midst of this rainy season three men, including the 
Doctor, were passing along the levee between the Slough 
near I street and the river, when they met a pretended 
sheriff and posse well charged with whiskey. Curiosity 
caused the three men to stop and watch proceedings. The 
posse went directly to a structure of logs and canvas, where 
was a sick man who had been fed and nursed by the Doctor 
for several days. This man was ruthlessly hauled from his 
shelter, and the logs and canvas leveled with the ground. 
One of the three watchers exclaimed, " That is a damned 
outrage," and the others joined in the exclamation. It was 
then and there the movement commenced that culminated 
in the squatter riot of the next year. These three men, 
entire strangers to each other, resolved that such proceed- 



38 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

ing should be reported to the people. Accordingly, it was 
decided to advertise a meeting to be held on the levee 
in front of a ship's galley lying near I street. A cord 
of wood was procured to furnish light, and " dodgers " 
about six inches square were printed and posted all over the 
place, on wagons, mules, and things movable and immova- 
ble. It was decided that the oldest of the three men should 
preside at the meeting, and that the Doctor should prepare 
and present resolutions. The time for the meeting came, 
and with it apparently the entire population of the city. 
The cord of wood was set on fire and the older man 
mounted the galley as president of the meeting. He was 
small in stature and small in voice, and seemed incapable of 
preserving order. The speculators and their friends monopo- 
lized the speech-making till the Doctor, who was unaccus- 
tomed to public speaking, found that modesty must be 
ignored or the squatters' cause would be lost. After sev- 
eral speculators had spoken he made his way to the stand, 
and prefaced his resolution with an account of the situation 
and a statement of what he had witnessed. He then read 
the following preamble and resolution : 

" Whereas, the land in California is presumed to be public land, 
therefore, 

" Resolved, That we will protect any settler in the possession of land 
to the extent of one lot in the city, and one hundred and sixty acres in 
the country, till a valid title shall be shown for it." 

This resolution was received with great enthusiasm. The 
crowd, which had listened to the speculators' harangues in 
silence, now went wild with excitement. No one could 
doubt the direction of the wind now, and men in abundance 
were found ready to endorse the resolution. This was the 
first move, and this the platform that remained the platform 
throughout the conflict. Before adjourning, steps were 
taken for a permanent organization, of which the Doctor 
was chosen president. Was there occasion or excuse for 



MEXICAN GRANTS. 



39 



this movement ? California had been acquired from Mexico 
by treaty, which respected all previous acts of the Mexican 
government relative to the occupying and ownership of the 
land. Under Mexican rule, governors of provinces, mayors 
of cities, and justices of the peace were authorized to issue 
grants of land subject to approval by the general govern- 
ment. In this way numerous grants had been made by the 
Governor of California, and one of eleven leagues to Cap- 
tain Sutter. These grants were often loosely defined, and 
the boundaries could be made to cover many times the 
amount called for in the grant. At this time, when the 
squatters were organized, no grant to Captain Sutter had 
been seen by any one, and the boundaries were unknown, 
but title was claimed under it from the Three Peaks, some 
seventy miles north of Sacramento, to some unknown dis- 
tance south of the town. It also extended from the "rivers 
to the ends of the earth," so far as known, east and west. 
No man could settle upon any part of this vast tract without 
being assailed by some pretended claimant under Sutter. 
Captain Sutter was a genial, generous old gentleman from 
Sweden, and, on account of his early settlement, was an im- 
portant character, socially and otherwise. He was made 
much of, and of course must be treated to some drink by 
each new visitor. As it would be uncivil to decHne one 
unless all were declined, and as he was not a teetotaler, he 
must drink with everybody. As he was unequal to the task 
of drinking everybody drunk in detail, everybody was sure 
to drink him drunk on every visit to the city. When in this 
condition he was very generous, and would sign almost any 
paper presented to him. In this way deeds were obtained 
at will by the unscrupulous speculators till the whole north- 
ern part of the State seemingly had been covered. Josiah 
Royce, in the Overland Monthly for September, 1885, on 
page 227, says: 

" In 1848, when the gold-seekers began to come, Sutter began to 
lose his wits. One of the pioneer statements in Mr. Bancroft's collection 



40 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

says rather severely that the distinguished Captain thenceforth signed 
' any paper that was brought to him.' At all events, he behaved in as 
unbusiness-like a fashion as could well be expected, and the result was 
that when his affairs came in later years to more complete settlement, 
it was found that he had deeded away, not merely more land than he 
actually owned, but, if I mistake not, more land than even he himself 
had supposed himself to own. All this led not only himself into embar- 
rassments, but other people with him ; and to arrange with justice the 
final survey of his Alvarado grant proved in later years one of the most 
perplexing problems of the United States District and Supreme Courts." 

At this time California was not admitted into the Union, 
and there was no law except the old Mexican code that was 
recognized by the United States. The Mexican local law 
was ignored, as no officers existed to enforce it. A consti- 
tution had been adopted and so-called laws made under it, 
and it was such laws as these that were resorted to by the 
speculators to eject settlers from all northern California, 
claimed to be covered by Sutter's grant. At first no pre- 
tense of legal process was deemed necessary. The poor 
settler, who had erected his shanty or tent on some unoccu- 
pied land, would be visited by some person who would de- 
mand possession, purchase-money, or blackmail. Many 
who wanted no trouble would leave without further notice. 
But such as failed to heed the warning would soon be visited 
by the pretended sheriff and posse. He would make quick 
work and oust the intruder. The squatters' organization, 
when completed, played havoc with such ejectments. Either 
the president or some member of that association would 
happen at the place of ejectment and seriously interfere with 
the programme. The speculators, finding this game blocked, 
concluded to send for the Sutter title, in accordance with 
the demand of the squatters' platform. A certified copy 
was procured from the archives of Mexico and read to a 
large meeting called for the purpose of hearing it. But, 
unfortunately for the speculators, the boundaries of this pre- 
tended grant were fatally defective. The third and foiu-th 
sections of this grant read as follows : 



LUTHER'S GRANT. 4 1 

" 3d. The land of which donation is made to him is of the extent of 
eleven sitios da gauado major, as exhibited in the sketch annexed to the 
proceedings, without including the lands overflowed by the swelling and 
current of the rivers. It is bounded on the north by los Tres Picas 
(three summits) and the 39° 41' 45" of north latitude ; on the east by the 
borders of the Rio de las Plumas (Feather River) ; on the south by the 
parallel 38° 49' 32" of north latitude ; and on the west by the river 
Sacramento. 

"4th. When this property shall be confirmed unto him, he shall 
petition the proper judge to give him possession of the land, in order 
that it may be measured, agreeably to ordinance, the surplus thereof 
remaining for the benefit of the nation, for convenient purposes. 
Therefore I order that this title being held as firm and valid, that the 
same be entered in the proper book, and that these proceedings be 
transmitted to the excellent Departmental Assembly." 

Here are natural boundaries which would seem conclusive. 
On the north by the Three Peaks, about sixty or seventy 
miles north of Sacramento, on the east by the Feather River, 
on the west by the Sacramento River, and on the south by a 
parallel of latitude near the junction of those rivers, about 
twenty miles north of Sacramento. Besides, it expressly 
excludes land overflowed by the rivers, and Sacramento was 
under from two to six feet of water for four or six weeks. 
This document, of course, confirmed the squatters in their 
determination to stand by each other. But the fight was not 
abandoned by the speculators. Although they had no law or 
equity on their side, they proposed to rely upon a pretense of 
law, or the legal machine. They evidently supposed that 
squatters would know no difference between pretense and 
reality, and proceeded accordingly. As a posse with nothing 
behind it would work no longer, something else must be tried. 
The first agency appealed to was the City Council, in Decem- 
ber, 1849. An ordinance was passed directing certain im- 
provements to be removed from city lots occupied by squat- 
ters, says the Sacramento Directory of 1853, and a posse of 
several hundred men under the city marshal started out on 
their mission. The president of the squatters' association, 
however, met them at their first job, and informed them that 



42 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

their authority to meddle with private property was not 
recognized by his association, and if they touched that 
property they must kill at least one person then and have a 
reckoning with the whole squatters' association afterwards. 
This was more than had been expected, and, although the 
little deputy marshal, who was charged to the muzzle with 
whiskey, cried " Shoot the scoundrel," no shooting was done, 
and the marshal with his posse retired to report to head- 
quarters. Finding that this form of law wouldn't frighten 
squatters and blood must be shed, some more impressive 
form must be invented. This was easily done. The State 
Legislature, so called, although no recognition of the State 
had been made by Congress, passed an act concerning forci- 
ble entry and detainer, with the express piu-pose of meeting 
the difficulty of settling possession without passing upon title 
in a United States court. As the justice could have no 
jurisdiction where the question of title was raised, the squat- 
ters repudiated this form of law, as in every case the squatter 
was in peaceable possession, and no right to possession in 
the claimant could be shown except by offsetting actual pos- 
session with title. This was accordingly done, notwithstand- 
ing the protests of the settlers. Sutter's title was pleaded in 
every case, decided valid, and judgment rendered against 
the squatter. He could appeal to the Probate Court by 
giving bonds for the satisfaction of the judgment. Also the 
bondsmen must be land-holders. No others would be taken. 
In the spring the president was absent several weeks in the 
mines, seeking a proper site for a sawmill, shipped around 
the Horn by his brother. During his absence the specula- 
tors were very busy with suits, ordinances, and organiza- 
tions. Mr. Royce, on page 238 of the Overland Mojithly, 
describes the situation as follows : 

" To this act [Forcible Entry and Detainer] some of the land-owners 
of Sacramento now appealed for help. Moreover, as they were in 
control of the city council, they proceeded to pass, amid the furious 
protests of the squatters, a municipal ordinance, forbidding any one to 



VEXATIOUS SUITS. 43 

erect tents, or shanties, or houses, or to heap lumber or other encum- 
brances, upon any vacant lot belonging to a private person, or upon any 
public street. The land-owners also formed a ' Law and Order Asso- 
ciation,' and printed in the papers a notice of their intention to defend 
to the last their property under the Sutter title. They began to drill 
companies of militia. A few personal encounters took place in various 
vacant lots, where owners tried to prevent the erection of fences or 
shanties. Various processes were served upon squatters, and executed. 
The squatter association itself plainly suffered a good deal from the 
internal jealousies or from the mutual indifference of its members. 
Only the ardor of Dr. Robinson prevented an utter failure of its or- 
ganization long before the crisis. In the latter part of June, and for 
some time in July, the movement fell into the background of public 
attention." 

On his return, in July, the Doctor found great discourage- 
ment among the squatters. Suits were innumerable, and 
bondsmen were used up. The speculators would try no 
appealed case, that a legal decision might be reached in a 
United States court, but evidently intended to worry out the 
squatters in the justice coiuts. Under these circumstances 
bondsmen must be had or this line of defense abandoned. 
Noticing that the squatters who offered themselves as bail 
uniformly claimed that, although land-holders, their title was 
a squatter's title, a new move was made. The Doctor staked 
off several blocks of land in the outskirts of the city, put a 
large tent upon them and moved in. At the next trial he 
offered himself as bail. Being questioned as to his title, he 
simply said it was as good as there was in the city. After a 
long time spent in trying in vain to get from him that his 
title was a squatter's title, the prosecutor objected. But the 
justice said the bondsman claimed as good a title as there 
was in the city, and, as he could not try titles, he must 
accept the claim. On being questioned as to the value of 
the land, it was placed at $100,000. This put an end to 
justices' trials, as it was found bail could be given indefi- 
nitely. Next came a trial of an appealed case before Judge 
Willis, the Probate judge. This case, of course, was decided 
against the squatters, and an appeal asked to the District 



44 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Court, hoping to get from that court to a United States court. 
An appeal was denied, however, and the crisis forced. It 
was now evident, if the squatters acquiesced in this proceed- 
ing and allowed ejectment to be had under the circum- 
stances, their fight was ended. But this issue was foreseen 
from the first, and some were ready to meet it, but not 
many. In the Sacramento Directory for 1853, this case is 
given as follows : 

" The defendant appealed from this decision to the County Court, 
and on the 8th of August, 1850, the case came for hearing before Judge 
Willis, of the above tribunal. The defendant at this trial was assisted 
by McKune, Tweed, and Aldrich. Defendants moved for a nonsuit, 
on the ground that the Recorder's Court had no jurisdiction over the 
case. The plea was taken into consideration, but by the consent of the 
parties the case was submitted upon its merits. The claim of title from 
Sutter being offered by plaintifTs, defendant objected, and the objection 
was taken under advisement, which resulted in the court overruling the 
objection. The case was then argued, and the following day judgment 
was rendered, sustaining the decision of the inferior court. 

" The defendant then asked to appeal to the Supreme Court, but 
there being no law at that time to sustain the appeal, the motion was 
overruled. During the proceedings of this trial both parties became 
excited to the utmost degree, and the squatters as a body declared 
against the restoration of the property pursuant to the judgment of the 
courts." 

What occurred after the decision is thus described in the 
Overla7id Monthly, page 240 : 

" They rushed from the court to excited meetings outside, and spread 
abroad the news that Judge Willis had not only decided against them, 
but had decided that from him there was no appeal. W'oe to such laws 
and to such judges! The law betrays us. W^e will appeal to the 
Higher Law. The processes of the courts shall not be served. 

" Dr. Robinson was not unequal to the emergency. At once he 
sent out notices, calling a mass meeting of ' squatters and others inter- 
ested,' to take place the same evening, August loth. It was Saturday, 
and when night came a large crowd of squatters, of land-owners, and of 
idlers had gathered. The traditional leisure of Saturday night made a 
great part of the assembly as cheerful as it was eager for novelty and 
interested in this affair. Great numbers were there simply to see fair 
play ; and this general public, in their characteristically American good- 



REPUDIATION OF COURTS. 45 

humor, were quite unwilling to recognize any sort of seriousness in the 
occasion. These jolly on-lookers interrupted the squatter orators, called 
for E. J. C. Kewen and Sam Brannan as representatives of the land- 
owners, listened to them a while, interrupted them when the thing grew 
tedious, and enjoyed the utter confusion that for the time reigned on 
the platform. At length the crowd were ready for Dr. Robinson and 
his inevitable resolutions. He, for his part, was serious enough. He 
had been a moderate man, he said, but the time for moderation was 
past. He was ready to have his corpse left on his own bit of land, ere 
he would yield his rights. Then he read his resolutions, which suffi- 
ciently denounced Judge Willis and the laws ; and thereafter he called 
for the sense of the meeting. Dissenting voices rang out, but the reso- 
lutions received a loud affirmative vote, and were declared carried. The 
regular business of the meeting was now done ; but for a long time yet 
various ambitious speakers mounted the platform and sought to address 
the crowd, which amused itself by roaring at them, or by watching them 
pushed from their high place. 

" Next day Dr. Robinson was early at work, drawing up in his 
own way a manifesto to express the sense of his party. It was a very 
able and reckless document. Robinson had found an unanswerable 
fashion of stating the ground for devotion to the Higher Law, as op- 
posed to State law." 

The following is substantially the manifesto issued : 

"TO THE PEOPLE OF SACRAMENTO CITY. 

" It is well known that a few individuals have seized upon nearly all 
the arable public lands in this county, and the following are some of the 
means they have resorted to, in order to retain the property thus taken : 

" First. They have used brute force and torn down the buildings of 
the settlers, and driven them from their homes by riotous mobs. 

' ' Second. They have used threats of violence, even to the taking of 
life, if the occupant or settler persisted in defending his property, and 
thus extorted from the timid their rightful possessions. 

" Third, They have passed or procured the passage of certain rules 
in the so-called Legislature of California, for the purpose, as their attor- 
neys affirm, of protecting themselves and removing the settlers from the 
land they may occupy whether right or wrong — thus settling the ques- 
tion of title in an assumed legislative body, which question can alone be 
settled by the Supreme Government of the United States. 

" Fourth. Under said legislative regulations, by them called laws, 
they have continually harassed the settler with suits, and in many in- 
stances compelled him to abandon his home for want of the means to 
pay the costs of their courts. Many others have paid these costs with 



46 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the hope of carrying their cause through these so-called courts to the 
proper tribunal for final decision, viz. : the Supreme Court of the United 
States. 

" But these hopes were vain, for Judge Willis, so-called, has decided 
that from his decision there is no appeal. 

" And now, inasmuch as the so-called Legislature is not recognized 
by Congress, and their rules and regulations not approved, and are 
therefore of no binding force upon the citizens of the United States, but 
simply advisory, and inasmuch as the so-called law of 'Forcible Entry 
and Detainer,' if passed for the purpose affirmed by their council, 
namely, to drive off settlers, with or without title, is unconstitutional, 
and would be in any State ; the people in this community called settlers, 
and others who are friends of justice and humanity, in consideration of 
the above, have determined to disregard all decisions of our courts in 
land cases and all summonses or executions by the sheriff, constable, or 
other officer of the present county or city touching this matter. They 
will regard the said officers as private citizens, as in the eyes of the 
Constitution they are, and hold them accountable accordingly. And, 
moreover, if there is no other appeal from Judge Willis, the settlers and 
others, on the first show of violence to their persons or property, either 
by the sheriff or other person, under color of any execution or writ of 
restitution, based on any judgment or decree of any court in this county, 
in an action to recover possession of land, have deliberately resolved to 
appeal to arms and protect their sacred rights, if need be, with their 
lives. 

" Should such be rendered necessary by the acts of the sheriff or 
others, the settlers will be governed by martial law. All property, and 
the persons of such as do not engage in the contest, will be sacredly 
regarded and protected by them, whether land-holders or otherwise, but 
the property and lives of those who take the field against them will 
share the fate of war." 

As it was understood that the sheriff would take possession 
of the property in dispute on Monday morning, several 
squatters were on hand to protect it. The situation and 
spirit of the movement is described in a letter found in the 
Doctor's tent, and published in the papers of the day. It 
is as follows : 

" August 12, 1850. — Although I have written one letter, yet, as I 
have been called upon by circumstances to remain in town, and as I 
have a little leisure, I will talk with you a little, my dear S. Since 
writing you, we have seen much and experienced much of a serious and 



POSITION STATED. 47 

important character, as well as much of excitement. The county judge, 
before whom our cases were brought, decided against us, and on Satur- 
day morning declared that from his decision there should be no appeal. 
The squatters immediately collected on the ground in dispute, and 
posted, on large bills, the following: 'OUTRAGE!!! Shall Judge 
Willis be dictator ? Squatters, and all other republicans, are invited to 
meet on the Levee this evening, to hear the details.' It was responded 
to by both parties, and the speculators, as aforetime, attempted to talk 
against time, etc. On the passage of a series of resolutions presented 
by your humble servant, there were about three ayes to one nay, al- 
though the Tra7iscript said they were about equal. Sunday morning I 
drew up a manifesto — carried it with me to the church — paid one dollar 
for preaching — helped them sing — showed it to a lawyer to see if my 
position was correct, legally, and procured the printing of it in hand- 
bills and in the paper, after presenting it to a private meeting of citizens 
for their approval, which I addressed at some length. After a long 
talk for the purpose of consoling a gentleman just in from the plains, 
and who the day before had buried his wife, whom he loved most ten- 
derly, and a few days previous to that had lost his son, I threw myself 
upon my blankets and ' anxiously thought of the morrow.' 

" What will be the result ? Shall I be borne out in my position? 
On whom can I depend ? How many of those who are squatters will 
come out if there is a prospect of a fight ? Will the sheriff take pos- 
session, as he has promised, before 10 o'clock A.M.? How many 
speculators will fight ? Have I distinctly defined our position in the 
bill ? Will the world, the universe and God say it is just ? — etc., etc., 
etc. Will you call me rash if I tell you that I took these steps to this 
point when I could get but twenty-five men to pledge themselves on 
paper to sustain me, and many of them, I felt, were timid ? Such was 
the case. 

" This morning I was early on my feet, silently and quietly visiting 
my friends, collecting arms, etc. Our manifesto appeared in the paper 
and in bills early, and the whole town is aroused. Nothing is thought 
or talked of but war. About two hundred men assembled on the dis- 
puted territory, and most of them sympathized with us. A few, how- 
ever, were spies. We chose our commander, and enrolled such as were 
willing and ready to lay down their lives, if need be, in the cause. 
About fifty names could be obtained. I managed, by speeches, busi- 
ness, etc., to keep the spectators and fighters mingled in a mass, all 
unarmed, so as to let no one know but all were men of valor, and ready 
to fight. While thus engaged, the mayor appeared and addressed us 
from his saddle — not ordering us to disperse, but advising us to do so. 
I replied, most respectfully, that we were assembled to injure no one, 
and to assail no one who left us alone. We were on our own property, 



45 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

with no hostile intention while unmolested. After he left I, with 
others, was appointed a committee to wait upon him at his office, and 
state distinctly our positions, etc., so that there could be no possibility 
of mistake. He said he should use his influence as an individual to 
keep any one from destroying our property, and told us the sheriff had 
just told him that the executions from the court had been postponed. 
We returned, and after reporting, and making some further arrangement 
for another meeting if necessary, we adjourned. I told the mayor we 
should not remain together if no attempt was to be made to execute 
their warrants, but I told him if in the meantime a sheriff or any other 
person molested a squatter, we should hold him responsible, according 
to our proclamation. From this position we could not be driven, al- 
though we knew it was in violation of the regulations of the State. 
We were prepared to abide the result. 

" It is said that a writ is made out for my arrest, as a rebel, etc. If 
so, it will not probably be served at present." 

No sooner had the squatters left the property in dispute, 
than the sheriff, contrary to the assurances given by the 
mayor, appeared, removed the furniture and property of the 
owner, and placed a keeper in charge. Also he arrested 
some of the squatters and placed them on the prison ship. 
Thus another step had been taken. If the premises should 
be permitted to remain with the officers, the speculators 
would be victorious, as all other cases would take the same 
course. But, should the squatters retake this property in 
defiance of the so-called officer, nothing would be gained by 
the suit. It would have to be tried over again, de novo, as 
the lawyers say, or the squatters tried for contempt of court. 
As these courts, like the justice of the peace who fined a 
man in the street for contempt, were all and at all times ob- 
jects of contempt, they would not be likely to resort to this 
remedy. But something must be done. It was now the 
squatters' turn to act. Leading squatters avoided arrest 
during the day, and a meeting was held at the Doctor's tent 
at night. Here the situation was fully discussed and a plan 
of procedure adopted. All were to meet early the next 
morning under an oak tree in the outskirts of the city and 
march to the disputed property and retake it. Maloney, a 



WAR MOVEMENTS. 49 

soldier in the Mexican war, was to be military leader. To 
avoid arrest, he and the Doctor went some six miles into the 
country and stopped over night at Maloney's claim. Early 
in the morning the two rode to the place of rendezvous, but 
found not a solitary squatter. They immediately started 
out to rally their forces. Evidently the courage that mani- 
fested itself so defiantly at squatter meetings, with no enemy 
in sight, had all oozed out of these brave men. Some of 
the loudest, and apparently the boldest, were found in bed 
trembling like aspen leaves. At length, after a search of 
some four or five hours, fifteen men, all told, were mustered. 
These were drilled for a short time by Captain Maloney be- 
fore starting on their errand. The martial spirit took pos- 
session of Maloney and he wanted to ride the Doctor's 
cream-colored horse. A gentleman just in from crossing 
the plains, sympathized with the movement, and lent the 
Doctor his Colt's six-shooter rifle. The only swearing in 
was an oath to obey orders of the commander, or be shot as 
a penalty. Thus, after devoting the afternoon of one day 
and nearly the whole night, and the forenoon of the next 
day, an army of fifteen men, armed and equipped, was ready 
to carry into effect the resolution adopted soon after the sick 
man was dragged from his shelter and left exposed to the 
elements, eight months before. When the order was given, 
" Forward, march ! " it was high noon of a very hot day. The 
squatter army of fourteen men and one commander marched 
in a sohd column, seven abreast, down N street, with all the 
circumstance of grim-visaged war. The house of A. M. 
Winn, former president of the City Council, was on the line 
of march, and, unfortunately. Captain Maloney had a bitter 
grudge against this ex-president. As the house was ap- 
proached, Maloney turned upon his horse and said he would 
order this house destroyed. The Doctor at once denounced 
such a proceeding as fatal to the success of the squatter 
movement. The Captain apparently abandoned his purpose, 
but, when directly opposite the house, he turned again and 



50 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

said, " We will never have a better time," and was about to 
give his order. The Doctor sprang forward, rifle in hand, 
and told him if he opened his mouth to order the destruction 
of that property he would blow his brains out. This seemed 
to stagger the Captain, Here was a private in the ranks 
who, not fifteen minutes before, had taken an oath to obey 
his orders or be shot, now, coming forward, rifle in hand, 
and threatening to blow his brains out if he issued an order. 
But he apparently made a merit of necessity and again 
moved on, saying he would give the order when he came 
back. At this exhibition of lack of comprehension of the 
issue involved, and the work to be done, the Doctor was 
greatly disturbed. To act on the defensive in protecting the 
houses of peaceable settlers against the most arrogant usurpa- 
tion and oppression was one thing, but to take the offensive, 
destroy private property, where a school was in session, and 
which was in no way connected with questions involved, 
was quite another. In the first case the sympathies of all 
good people would be enlisted, while in the second men and 
women of all classes would unite to put down the vandals. 
Evidently, this Maloney did not see, or, if he saw it, his 
passions upset his judgment. 

At length the house in controversy was reached, at the 
comer of N and Second streets. The keeper placed in 
charge by the sheriff was absent, and nothing remained to 
do but take formal possession and replace the furniture and 
property in the house where it belonged. Fearing Maloney 
would be uncontrollable if he should return by the ex-presi- 
dent's house, the Doctor advised that a lot on I street should 
be visited, where some lumber had been deposited from a 
vessel without consulting the squatter claimant. This would 
take the squatters out of town by another route. I street 
was accordingly visited, but, as the owner of the lumber had 
no designs upon the lot, nothing was to be done. Soon 
after the march was commenced, the sheriff and mayor 
could be seen on horseback galloping in every direction to 



rally their friends to the rescue. As laboring people were 
released from work for dinner, many of them from curiosity 
joined the procession, which, by the time I street was reached 
was numbered by the thousand. Some were armed with 
rifles and shot-guns, and more with revolvers. The squatters 
marched and carried themselves like veterans, never breaking 
ranks or being disconcerted by the immense crowd at their 
heels. 

As nothing was to be done at the lot on I street, Maloney 
was requested to march out of town on that street, as it was 
but thinly settled, and no distiurbances would be likely to 
occur. He marched up I street to Third, when, to the 
amazement of the Doctor, he turned and passed to J street, 
the business street of the town. This was the home of the 
saloons, gambling-houses, and rabble, as well as the business 
places. Now the crowd of followers was increased im- 
mensely, and composed of the most desperate characters as 
well as of the curiosity-seekers. The march was up J street 
to Foiu-th, where a turn was made to the south. The squat- 
ters had but just turned the comer of J street and Fourth, 
when a shout was raised and the mayor, sheriff, and their 
adherents opened fire, doubtless contemplating a stampede 
of the army of fifteen. But on the instant Maloney gave 
the order to face about and fire. No one objected to this 
order, and it was promptly obeyed. No sooner was the fire 
of the mayor's crowd rettumed than all fled in hot haste. 
In less time than it takes to record it, the space was cleared 
in front of the squatters. As the mayor was on horseback, 
he was a shining mark, and was badly wounded, losing one 
arm. The city auditor, who had been very prominent and 
offensive, was killed. One squatter also was killed in the 
first encounter. After the crowd had fled, and while the 
squatters were still in line, one man, named Harper, passed 
up J street, and when opposite the Doctor, he suddenly 
stopped and fired his revolver, the ball passing through the 
Doctor's body two inches below the heart. The Doctor 



52 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

then raised his rifle and returned the fire, the ball striking 
the breast-bone of Harper and glancing off without entering 
the body. The next the Doctor knew, after firing at Har- 
per, he found himself upon the ground. How he got there, 
or how long he had been there, he had no knowledge. On 
looking about, he could see no human being, either squatter, 
speculator, or spectator, and being thirsty, he crawled slowly 
into an eating-house opposite where he lay. The inmates 
were timid, and at first afraid to furnish the water craved. 
Soon, however, some physicians made their appearance, and 
he was placed upon a cot and well cared for. While in this 
position, rapid firing was heard in the street or alley near 
by, of short duration. It was soon reported that Captain 
Maloney and his horse were killed." It was afterwards 
learned that when all opponents had fled, the squatters 
quietly separated, each going his own way, and while 
Maloney was riding along the street the sheriff galloped up 
and denounced him in most ungallant terms. Maloney, 
although armed with no weapon except a saber, while the 
sheriff was loaded down with revolvers, turned and pursued 
his assailant, who led into a crowd of speculators well armed. 
They at once opened fire, killing the horse, and planting 
eighteen bullets in Maloney's body. Soon after the accom- 
phshment of this heroic deed, this pretended sheriff, covered 
with sweat and glory, made his appearance at the eating- 
house to arrest the Doctor and take him to the prison ship. 
As at this time his wound was supposed to be mortal, and 
there being no pulsation at the wrist the end might be near, 
the physicians demurred and made the little dignitary wait. 
However, reaction came on, the pulse at the wrist returned, 
and in about three hours from the time of the encounter the 
Doctor was removed to the prison ship. As he was carried 
on the cot the whole city seemed to be on some of the 
streets through which he passed. Sidewalks, verandas, 
roofs, and everything that could hold a human being seemed 
to be in requisition. Not a word was uttered in the hearing 



EFFECT OF THE BATTLE. 



53 



of the prisoner, and there was an anxious silence that could 
be felt. On reaching the prison ship his brother, who had 
accompanied him thus far, was turned away, and the prisoner 
was placed in the forecastle. The only other occupant was 
a violently insane foreigner who muttered in an unknown 
language, beating the sides of the vessel with his head and 
otherwise most of the time. Here the prisoner was left until 
late the next morning, evidently with no expectation on the 
part of the officials of any other trouble than that of a 
burial. 

The effect upon the town of this encounter is thus de- 
scribed by Mr. Royce, in Overland Monthly, page 243 : 

" Like a lightning flash the battle came and was done. The array 
of the squatters melted away like a mist when the two leaders were seen 
to fall ; the confused mass of the citizens, shocked and awe-stricken when 
they were not terrified, waited no longer on the field than others, but 
scattered wildly. A few moments later, when Dr. Stillman returned 
with his shot-gun, which, on the first firing, he had gone but half a 
block to get, the street was quite empty of armed men. He waited for 
some time to see any one in authority. At length Lieutenant-Governor 
McDougal appeared, riding at full speed, ' his face very pale.' 

" ' Get all the armed men you can,' he said, ' and rendezvous at 
Fowler's hotel.' 

" ' I went to the place designated,' says Dr. Stillman, ' and there 
found a few men, who had got an old iron ship's gun, mounted on a 
wooden truck ; to its axles was fastened a long dray pole. The gun 
was loaded with a lot of scrap iron. I wanted to know where Mc- 
Dougal was ; we expected him to take the command and die with us. I 
inquired of Mrs. McDougal, who was stopping at the hotel, what had 
become of her husband. She said he had gone to San Francisco for 
assistance. Indeed, he was on his way to the steamer Senator when I 
saw him, and he left his horse on the bank of the river.' 

" In such swift, dream-like transformations the experiences of the 
rest of the day passed by. Rumors were countless. The squatters 
had gone out of the city ; they would soon return. They were seven 
hundred strong. They meant vengeance. They would fire the city. 
Yes, they already had fired the city, although nobody knew where. 
No one could foresee the end of the struggle. The city had been de- 
clared under martial law. Everybody must come out. The whole 
force of the State would doubtless be needed. If the squatters failed 
now, they would go to the mines, and arouse the whole population 



54 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

there. One would have to fight all the miners as well. Such things 
flew from mouth to mouth ; such reports the Senator carried to San 
Francisco, with the pale-faced Lieutenant-Governor." 

When the speculators found that the squatters proposed 
to hve up to their manifesto, and act only on the defensive, 
the panic began to subside. But some thought it a good 
opportunity to make an end of squatters and squatterism 
altogether. The military leader had been riddled with bul- 
lets, and the civil leader was mortally wounded in the hold 
of the prison ship. Who now would dare stand out against 
the Sutter grant ? The daily papers were filled with glorifi- 
cation over the situation, and various officials and others 
were brevetted for wonderful deeds of valor. Especially 
was the httle red-headed sheriff a marvel as a strategist and 
hero-general. These panegyrics were too much for so small 
a man, and he began to thirst for more blood and glory. 
The second day he rallied a posse and started into the 
country, some seven or eight miles, to arrest "old man 
Allen," as he was called. This man was a stalwart squatter, 
over six feet in height, from Missouri. He had a claim that 
somebody wanted, and he must go. It is true he was some 
seven or eight miles from the Sacramento River, and Sut- 
ter's grant was but one league wide, but that was immaterial ; 
his grant was as valid in one place as another if a claim was 
made under it. On arriving at its destination, the sheriff's 
posse was divided into three squads, one for the front and 
one for each end of the house, while the rear was covered 
by the American River. The bold sheriff commanded the 
front squad, and marched up to the front door. When 
Allen, who was caring for his sick wife, who died in the 
melee, came to the door, his surrender was demanded. But 
he understood this game, and surrendered the contents of his 
shot-gun instead of himself. This quieted this brave officer 
effectually, and the posse took him back to town. Several 
shots were fired at Allen, but he escaped into the American 
River in the rear of his house. Two men in the house were 



DEATH OF THE SHERIFF. 55 

killed. When the posse left, Allen left his hiding-place and 
went to the mines. On the return of this posse with the 
dead body of its leader, the music was pitched in a new key. 
The city, which, according to Mr. Royce, " was never safer, 
as a whole, than a few hours after the fatal meeting at the 
corner of Fourth and J streets," was again all excitement. 
This same writer, on page 245, says: 

" The city was not reassured by the news of the sheriff's death. In 
the unlighted streets of the frightened place, the alarm was sounded by 
the returning party about nine o'clock. Of course, invasion and fire 
were expected. The militia companies turned out, detailed patrolling 
parties, and then ordered the streets cleared. The danger was immi- 
nent that the defenders of the law would pass the night in shooting one 
another by mistake in the darkness ; but this was happily avoided. The 
families in the town were, of course, terribly excited. ' The ladies,' 
says Dr. Stillman, ' were nearly frightened out of their wits ; but we 
assured them that they had nothing to fear — that we were devoted 
to their service, and were ready to die at their feet. Being thus as- 
sured, they all retired into their cozy little cottages, and securely bolted 
the doors.' Morning came, bringing with it the steamer from San 
Francisco. Lieutenant-Governor McDougal was on board. He felt 
seriously the responsibilities of his position, and accordingly went to 
bed, sick with the cares of office. In the city Sam Brannan and others 
talked mightily of law, order, and blood. There were, however, no 
more battles to fight. In a few days, quiet was restored ; people were 
ashamed of their alarm. Squatters confined themselves to meeting in 
the mining districts and in Marysville, to savage manifestoes, and to 
wordy war from a distance, with sullen submission near home. The 
real war was done. A tacit consent to drop the subject was soon no- 
ticeable in the community. Men said that the law must be enforced, 
and meanwhile determined to speak no ill of the dead. There was a 
decided sense, also, of common guilt. The community had sinned and 
suffered. And soon the cholera, and then the winter, ' closed the 
autumn scene.' " 

The reader will notice a wonderful change in this extract 
from the mighty talk of " law, order, and blood," by Brannan 
and others, to the statement that immediately followed, 
namely: "There were, however, no more battles to fight. 
In a few days quiet was restored. * * * A tacit con- 
sent to drop the subject was soon noticeable in the com- 



56 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

munity." But why was the subject dropped! This seems 
to be a most lame and impotent conclusion of a great war 
in which the speculators, according to this and other writers, 
were victorious. The reasons for this sudden termination 
of hostilities and apparent change of front, the speculators 
and their defenders do not care to give, and they cannot be 
censured for the omission. But they should be given for 
the benefit of the historian. After the dead sheriff was 
brought into town, the keeper of the prison ship visited his 
squatter prisoner and reported what had happened. He 
said the sheriff went out to arrest " old man Allen," and the 
latter shot him dead. He seemed much excited and exas- 
perated that any man should have the temerity to defend 
himself in that way. The prisoner ventured to inquire after 
the squatters. " Where were they and what were they do- 
ing ? " " Squatters," said the keeper, " they are annihilated, 
or will be as fast as found." This reply caused an invisible 
and incredulous smile on the part of the prisoner, but noth- 
ing more was said. 

About the second night after this transaction, the keeper 
again visited his prisoner, still greatly excited, but in another 
way. He now came to ask a favor. He said word had 
come from the mines that the miners had resolved to visit 
Sacramento, rescue the prisoners, and sack the town, if 
another squatter was disturbed or the prisoners were ill- 
treated. To prevent any further trouble, would the prisoner 
be so kind as to authorize him to send word to the miners 
that he, the prisoner, did not want to be rescued. This 
would quiet the town, which was very much excited. The 
prisoner said, while he had no desire for a rescue, he had no 
word to send to the miners or other parties. They must act 
as they thought best. Here was a new song, with a very 
different tune from the one sung two nights before. It was 
afterwards reported that old man Allen reached a mining 
camp the next day, after killing the sheriff, while the miners 
were at dinner. He was hatless and coatless, and covered 



WAR AT AN END. 



57 



with mud and blood from head to foot. In this pHght he 
told the story of the squatter riot and of his encounter with 
the sheriff. It is needless to say that here was the inspira- 
tion for the resolution to destroy the town if such proceed- 
ings did not cease. Two men were sent as spies from the 
speculators to see if Allen could be arrested. Naturally, 
their report was unfavorable. 

Also, the visiting militia may have had something to do 
with the sudden change in the atmosphere at Sacramento. 
The company that came up from San Francisco called in a 
body upon the prisoner, in his forecastle, and after standing 
about the cot for a few moments, an officer whispered in the 
ear of the prisoner that he and his friends had nothing to 
fear from them, as they had investigated the matter and 
approved of the course the squatters had taken. Under all 
the circumstances, it is not surprising that " a tacit consent 
to drop the subject was soon noticeable in the community," 
and that there was also " a decided sense of common guilt " 
on the part of the speculators. Mr. Royce says, while there 
were meetings and manifestoes in the mines, " there was 
sullen submission near home." The platform of the squat- 
ters from first to last was protection to the occupant of land 
in possession of the same till title should be shown, and 
when all opposition to this possession ceased the war was 
over. As soon as all attempts ceased to get possession of 
land under forcible entry and detainer laws, and bogus acts 
of bogus city councils, there was nothing more to be done. 
The squatters had obtained all they ever demanded. 

In order to make it appear that the speculators gained a 
great victory, and the squatters suffered a corresponding 
defeat, writers have deemed it necessary to misstate the issue. 
Instead of being the simple preamble and resolution adopted 
at the first squatters' meeting, namely, " Whereas the land 
in California is presumed to be public land, therefore, re- 
solved, that we will protect any settler in the possession of 
land to the extent of one lot in the city and one hundred 



58 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

and sixty acres in the country, till a valid title shall be shown 
for it," the writers would make it appear that the squatters 
were agrarians, transcendentalists, higher-law men, and im- 
practicable visionaries. A few quotations from Mr. Royce, 
in Overland Mojithly, will illustrate the general method of 
treating the issue : 

" Providence is known to be opposed to every form of oppression; 
and grabbing eleven leagues of land is a great oppression. And so the 
worthlessness of Mexican land titles is evident. 

" Of course, the squatters would have disclaimed very generally so 
naked a statement as this of their position. But when we read in one 
squatter's card that ' surely Sutter's grant does not entitle to a mo- 
nopoly of all the lands in California, which were purchased by the treas- 
ure of the whole nation, and by no small amount of the best blood that 
ever coursed or ran through American veins,' the same writer's formal 
assurance that Sutter ought to have his eleven leagues whenever they 
can be found and duly surveyed cannot blind us to the true spirit of the 
argument. What has this ' best blood ' to do with the Sutter grant ? 
The connection in the writer's mind is only too obvious. He means 
that the ' best blood ' won for us a right to harass great land-owners. 
In another of these expressions of squatter opinion I have found the 
assertion that the land speculators stand on a supposed old Mexican 
legal right of such as themselves to take up the whole territory of Cali- 
fornia, in sections of eleven leagues each, by some sort of Mexican pre- 
emption. If a squatter persists in understanding the land-owner's 
position in this way, his contempt for it is as natural as his wilful deter- 
mination to make game of all native Californian claims is obvious. 

* * * A member, who has already been quoted, wrote to the Placer 
Times that, ' with the Sutter men there has been and is now money and 
power, and some of them are improving every opportunity to trouble 
and oppress the peaceable, hard-'workmg, o7-der-loving, and law-abiding 
settler, which, in the absence of the mass of the people in the mines 
they do with comparative impunity.' The italics are his own. The 
letter concluded with an assurance that the settlers were organized to 
maintain what * country, nature, and God ' had given to them. The 
mention of the ' absence of the people in the mines ' is very character- 
istic of the purposes of the squatters ; and the reference to ' country, 
nature, and God ' illustrates once more the spirit of the movement. 

* * * The movement was plainly an agrarian and ultra-American 
movement, opposed to all great land-owners, and especially to all these 
Mexican grantees. 

" The appeal quoted above, to ' nature, country, and God,' is also, as 



FALSE ISSUE. 59 

I have said, characteristic of the spirit of the movement. The writer 
of the letter in question is very probably no other than the distinguished 
squatter leader, Dr. Charles Robinson himself, a man to whom the 
movement seems to have owed nearly all its ability. And when we 
speak of Dr. Robinson, we have to do with no insignificant dema- 
gogue or unprincipled advocate of wickedness, but with a high-minded 
and conscientious man, who chanced just then to be in the devil's serv- 
ice, but who served the devil honestly, thoughtfully, and, so far as he 
could, dutifully, believing him to be an angel of light. This future 
Free-Soil Governor of Kansas, this cautious, clear-headed, and vigorous 
anti-slavery champion of the troublous days before the war, who has 
since survived so many bitter quarrels with old foes and old friends, to 
enjoy, now at last, his peaceful age at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, 
is not a man of whom one may speak with contempt, however serious 
his error in Sacramento may seem. He was a proper hero for this 
tragic comedy, and ' nature, country, and God ' were his guiding ideals. 
Only you must understand the character that these slightly vague ideals 
seem to have assumed in his mind. He was a new-comer of '49, and 
hailed from Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He was a college graduate, had 
studied medicine, had afterwards rebelled against the technicalities of 
the code of his local association, and had become an independent prac- 
titioner. His friends and interests, as his whole subsequent career 
showed, were with the party of the cultivated New England Radicals 
of that day. And these cultivated Radicals of the anti-slavery genera- 
tion, and especially of Massachusetts, were a type in which an impartial 
posterity will take a huge delight ; for they combined so characteristic- 
ally shrewdness, insight, devoutness, vanity, idealism, and self- worship. 
To speak of them, of course in the rough and as a mass, they were 
usually believers in quite abstract ideals : men who knew how to meet 
God ' in the bush ' whenever they wanted, and so avoided him in the 
mart and the crowded street ; men who had ' dwelt cheek by jowl, since 
the day' they were ' born, with the Infinite Soul,' and whose relations 
with him were like those of any man with his own private property. 
This Infinite that they worshipped was, however, in his relations to 
the rest of the world too often rather abstract, a Deus absamditus, who 
was as remote from the imperfections and absurdities of the individual 
laws and processes of human society as he was near to the heart of his 
chosen worshippers. From him they got a so-called Higher Law. As 
it was ideal, and, like its author, very abstract, it was far above the 
erring laws of men, and it therefore relieved its obedient servants from 
all entangling earthly allegiances. If the Constitution upon which our 
sinful national existence depended, and upon which our only hope of 
better things also depended, was contradicted by this Higher Law, then 
the Constitution was a ' league with hell,' and anybody could set up for 



6o THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

himself, and he and the Infinite might carry on a government of their 
own. * * * Well, Dr. Robinson, also, had evidently learned much, 
in his own way, from teachers of this school. The complex and weari- 
some details of Spanish law plainly do not interest him, since he is at home 
in the divine Higher Law. Concrete rights of rapacious land speculators 
in Sacramento are unworthy of the attention of one who sees so clearly 
into the abstract right of man. God is not in the Sutter grant, that is 
plain. It is the mission of the squatters to introduce the divine justice 
into California; no absurd justice that depends upon erroneous lines of 
latitude, and establishments at New Helvetia, and other like blundering 
details of dark Spanish days, but the justice that can be expressed in 
grand abstract formuloe, and that will hear of no less arbiter than the 
United States Supreme Court at the very nearest, and is quite independ- 
ent of local courts and processes. 

" For the rest. Dr. Robinson added to his idealism the aforesaid 
Yankee shrewdness, and to his trust in God considerable ingenuity in 
raising funds to keep the squatter association at work. He wrote well 
and spoke well. He was thoroughly in earnest, and his motives seem 
to me above any suspicion of personal greed. He made out of this 
squatter movement a thing of real power, and was, for the time, a very 
dangerous man. 

"Thus led and moved, the squatter association might easily have 
become the centre of a general revolutionary movement of the sort 
above described." 

The reader who has followed this narration thus far can 
estimate this wild, extravagant language at its true value, 
without further comment. It is plain the only higher law 
the squatters were after was the law of the United States, 
and the decision of a legal tribunal. This law and decision 
the speculators said should not be had, hence the conflict. 
Mr. Royce says the Supreme Court was a long way off, and 
to wait for its decision would work great hardship to the 
claimants under the grant. But where would be the greater 
hardship? This grant was sufficiently elastic to cover all 
northern California, and was used to enable a few men, with 
quit-claim or other deeds from Captain Sutter, to levy tribute 
upon every person of the many thousand who might want 
to settle in the country. If the claimants could not wait for 
a legal adjustment, how could the hordes of destitute people 
wait that were pouring in from the Eastern States ? If the 



INDICTMENT SLAVERY. 6 1 

title should prove valid, the grantees would lose nothing. 
Even should the entire tract of eleven leagues be densely 
populated by thriving cities, it would only enhance the value 
of the grant a thousand-fold, while, should the land in ques- 
tion be not covered by the grant, the cormorants would have 
robbed every occupant of hard-earned money, never to be 
returned. Thus a valid claimant would lose nothing by 
waiting for the courts, even the highest court, while the 
squatter would lose all he might pay for a bogus title at the 
hands of a bogus claimant or speculator. 

When the prisoner had partially recovered, he and his two 
companions were taken before a so-called magistrate and 
formally committed on a charge of miu-der and other crimes. 
The District Court, so-called, soon met at Sacramento, and 
the grand jury found true bills, one for miu-der, two for 
assault with intent to kill, and one for conspiracy. Soon 
after the finding of these bills the three prisoners were taken 
into court to plead to the indictment. 

One of the attorneys employed to defend the squatters 
was Mr. Tweed, formerly of Florida, As the time ap- 
proached for the election of members of the Legislature, he 
paid his cHent a visit on the prison ship, and engaged in a 
pohtical discussion. He advocated the division of Cahfomia 
into two States, one to be a slave State. This, he argued, 
would tend to allay the excitement in the country and pre- 
vent any attempt at a dissolution of the Union. He said 
there was a movement in this direction in California, though 
not as yet public. He desired the opinion of his client upon 
such a proposition. His client answered that he was opposed 
to slavery from conviction of its injustice, and could not 
favor its extension. Not many days after this, the attorney 
appeared again. This time he reported that he had learned 
that some parties proposed to support the prisoner for an 
election to the Legislature, and he advised that he should 
dechne to be a candidate. This he did as attorney, for the 
good of his cHent, To allow his name to be used in that 



62 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

connection would prejudice his case in the courts. The 
prisoner at length informed his counsel that he had nothing 
to do with outside matters, and if the courts were disposed 
to hang him because some people chose to vote for him, 
they could do so. He was not inchned to interfere. The 
prisoner, by putting the two visits together, understood 
plainly that slavery extension to southern California was in 
issue, and that his attorney opposed his being a candidate 
solely because of his opposition to slavery. 

After this, when the squatters called for a new manifesto 
for a campaign document, the prisoner fiirnished one which 
made a clear and brief statement of the situation, charging 
upon the speculators murder in the first degree, and placing 
the squatters in the position of defenders of their natural and 
constitutional rights. This manifesto was printed in the 
form of a poster and distributed throughout the county. 
Not a speech was made in this canvass, the manifesto told 
the whole story. The papers denounced the manifesto in 
the wildest and bitterest terms, saying that " these men who 
sleep nightly with halters about their necks have the audacity 
to charge the citizens of Sacramento with murder," etc., etc. 
Notwithstanding this bitter opposition of the press, pro- 
slavery men, and speculators, Mr. Royce, in the Overland 
Monthly, would make it appear that this election went by 
default and by general consent of all parties. On page 246, 
he says : 

' ' As nowadays we elect a displaced university professor to the super- 
intendency of public instruction just to give him a fair chance to do 
good to the university, so then it was felt by some good-natured 
folk reasonable to elect Dr. Robinson to the Legislature, not because 
people believed wholly in his ideas, but because his services merited 
attention. At all events, in a district of Sacramento County, Dr. 
Robinson's friends managed, with the connivance of certain optimists, 
to give him a seat in the Assembly, that late ' advisory ' body, whose 
' rules,' before the admission of the State, he had so ardently despised. 
The State was admitted now, and Dr. Robinson cheerfully undertook 
his share of legislation. " 



LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 63 

Soon after his election the prisoner was admitted to bail, 
and became one of the editors of a new paper called the 
Settlers' and Miuers^ Tribune. He was thus employed till 
the meeting of the Legislature, when he took his seat in that 
body. Here came to the front the slavery extension ques- 
tion. The Whigs had nominated for Senator, in place of 
Fremont, who drew the short term, T. Butler King, of 
Georgia, and the Democrats had nominated Judge Heyden- 
felt, of Alabama, both in favor of a division of California. 
Fremont alone of the candidates was opposed to this divis- 
ion, and, although the proprietor of a large land grant, the 
squatter supported him. Some twelve to fifteen others 
joined him, and holding the balance between the Whigs and 
Democrats, defeated the election for that session. The anti- 
slavery squatters approved of the course taken, while a few 
pro-slavery squatters were offended. At the next session the 
anti-slavery sentiment was so strong as to elect a Northern 
man, Mr. Weller from Ohio, and the question was effectually 
disposed of. 

A law was passed at this session of the Legislature which 
quieted all illegal proceedings in land controversies, and all 
parties had to await the decision of the proper tribunals. A 
change of venue was had in the squatter cases to Benicia, 
but, after the session of the Legislature, the prisoners were 
discharged for want of prosecution. The prosecuting attor- 
ney would neither proceed with the trial nor enter a nolle, 
and the court turned the prisoners loose. 

The Overland Monthly^ pages 245 and 246 says: 

" Dr. Robinson, indeed, was in little danger from his indictments 
when once the heat of battle had cooled. He was felt to be a man of 
mark ; the popular ends had been gained in his defeat ; the legal evidence 
against him was like the chips of drift-wood in a little eddy of this 
changing torrent of California life. With its little horde of drift, the 
eddy soon vanished in the immeasurable flood. After a change of venue 
to a bay county, and after a few months' postponement, the cloud of 
indictments melted away like the last cloud flake of our rainy season. 
A'olle pros, was entered and the hero was free." 



64 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

From the squatters' standpoint, Dr. Robinson, though 
wounded, was not beaten. The squatters gained their cause. 
Neither was the failure to prosecute because of a lack of 
evidence. That was abundant, but, unfortunately for the 
speculators, it would convict them instead of Robinson. 
The manifesto before election distinctly indicted them for 
miuder, and gave the evidence. The papers admitted the 
indictment, and the election of Robinson was the verdict of 
Sacramento County of guilty as charged. The Legislature 
while in session volunteered, while the prisoner was sick and 
without his knowledge, to pass a joint resolution through 
both houses instructing the prosecuting attorney to ?iolle the 
case, to be vetoed, however, by the brave Lieutenant and 
Acting Governor McDougal, who fled down the river when 
the mayor was shot, and went to bed sick when the sheriff 
was killed. This joint resolution was a verdict by the whole 
State against the speculators of guilty of murder in the first 
degree. Of course, under such circumstances, they Avould 
be very glad if not only the evidence but the recollection of 
the squatter riots, would float "like drift-wood in a little 
eddy " to oblivion. 

When the speculators found they could no longer settle a 
grant to eleven leagues of land in a justice's court, a case 
was brought in a court that had jurisdiction in such matters, 
which finally reached the Supreme Court, the " higher law " 
of the squatters. The disposition made of Sutter's grant by 
this court can be found in the Supreme Court reports. What 
reasoning was adopted in order to locate a grant of land 
bounded on the east by the Feather River so as to cover 
the town of Sacramento, it is not easy to understand. It is 
evident that there was some difficulty in the case, for Mr. 
Royce says, on page 227, "To arrange with justice the final 
survey of his Alvarado grant proved in later years one of the 
most perplexing problems of the United States District and 
Supreme Courts." It must have been difficult to locate a 
grant bounded on the north by the Three Peaks, on the east 



SUPREME COURT SUTTER. 65 

by Feather River, on the south by the 38° 49' 32" parallel 
of latitude, and on the west by the Sacramento River, by 
boundaries given in Captain Sutter's quit-claim deeds for 
lands in and about Sacramento. A layman cannot under- 
stand what business the court had with any boundaries 
except such as were given by Alvarado. If the grant had 
boundaries, natural, plain, and unmistakable, Sutter's deeds 
could not change them ; but if it had no such boundaries it 
was null and void. Many things in court decisions are too 
high for common people, and past finding out by them. 

And poor old Captain Sutter, in whose name and for 
whose pretended benefit the suit was brought and carried to 
the Supreme Court, what became of his rights, his profits, 
and himself? Finding he was being defrauded by these 
claimants under his grant, he employed counsel to defeat 
them in despoiling him of his rightful possessions through 
the agency of the Supreme Court. 

A fugitive newspaper clipping describes his condition, 
when the speculators had done with him, as follows : 

" A sad story is that of General Sutter, a man noted for benevolence, 
but now reduced to poverty. The first gold found in California was 
discovered in the race of his mill, and soon thousands of squatters had 
' prospected ' upon his p'ossessions. With a hand open as the day to 
melting charity, he relieved the wants of all. ^Ye are told that the 
aged patriarch, guileless as a child, and totally wanting in commercial 
tact, unsuspectingly confided his secrets, his business, even his property, 
to any one who by an affectation of interest, or hypocritical show of 
assistance, offered himself to his friendship. One after another his 
broad acres slipped from his grasp ; he placed his affairs in the hands 
of an agent who deceived, deluded, and robbed him of hard dollars ; 
his property dwindled down to merely a tithe of what it had been, and 
the old man's sorrows were heavy upon him. In this condition he put 
a farm, his sole remaining support, into the hands of his son, who 
proved worse even than strangers, and robbed him of his last posses- 
sion. He is now reduced to all but begging, but waiting the decision 
of some commissions in respect to a land claim." 



CHAPTER IV. 

SITUATION IN THE EAST. ELI THAYER AND HIS ASSOCIATES. 

SETTLEMENT OF LAWRENCE. CLAIM CONTROVERSIES. 

In the winter and spring of 1854, while the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill was pending in Congress, Massachusetts espe- 
cially was greatly moved. The agitation of the slavery 
question had disturbed the people, including churches and 
political parties, for several years, till the old order of things 
had been nearly broken up. Come-outers were distracting 
the churches, and Know-Nothings and Free-Soilers were 
playing havoc with political parties. Hunker Whigs and 
Bourbon Democrats seemed to be the only land-marks re- 
maining of the olden time, and now their peace was greatly 
endangered. If the sacred compromises were to go down 
before the advance of the slave power, by the votes of mem- 
bers of their own parties, what hope would there be for such 
parties in Massachusetts in the future ? The no-Union abo- 
litionists were in high feather, as their claim of no hope for 
the slave within the Union seemed about to be vindicated. 
But, in the midst of all the excitement and confusion, a ray 
of hope appeared. One man had the temerity to prophesy 
that what was intended for evil should result in good ; that 
the legislation which was intended to extend slavery indefi- 
nitely should be used to abolish that institution absolutely. 
He began to preach his new gospel, and all eyes were turned 
upon him. At first all seemed incredulous. Who was this 
man that hoped to stem the tide of slavery, to change the 
current of events, and to abolish that great iniquity by the 
very machinery that had been invented to make it perpetual 



ELI THAYER AND HIS ASSOCIATES. 67 

and universal. The president of the first squatters' associa- 
tion in Cahfornia was now returned to Massachusetts. He 
had traversed the goodly land about to be bhghted, and 
earnestly hoped that it might be saved to freedom. He had 
talked and written about its good quahties, and was watch- 
ing eagerly for information about this daring man — this 
David who seemed ready to challenge single-handed the 
Goliath of slavery. At length, to satisfy himself fully, to 
see of what material this man was made, whether he was a 
mere agitator, or a man who had convictions for which he 
would risk his hfe if necessary, the squatter attended one of 
his Boston meetings. Taking a back seat, the stranger paid 
the closest attention to the proceedings, and reached the 
conclusion that this was no counterfeit, but a true man who 
would meet any crisis without flinching. Evidently, here 
was a crusader who had thoroughly digested his plan, and 
had implicit confidence both in himself and in his scheme. 
No man could listen to him without partaking of his spirit, 
neither could any person, after listening, entertain any doubts 
of the feasibility of his plan, or of his ability to put it in suc- 
cessful operation. This man, of course, was Eli Thayer ; 
for there was but one such in the nation. When, therefore, 
Mr. Thayer, with Amos A. Lawrence and J. M. S. Williams, 
trustees, in June, 1854, sent for the writer to meet them at 
Boston for the piupose of carrying this plan into execution, 
he could not refuse any duty that might be assigned him. 
No other evidence was needed of the inspiration of Mr. 
Thayer than the fact that he could impart his inspiration to 
other people of all classes and conditions. At one of his 
meetings J. M. S. Williams became inspired and subscribed 
$10,000 for the cause, and at another time Charles Francis 
Adams subscribed $25,000. Also W. M. Evarts was taken 
with the infection and subscribed one-fourth of all he was 
worth, or $1000. Mr. Thayer enlisted in his work the most 
conservative as well as the most radical, the richest and the 
poorest, the highest and lowest. Among those his inspiration 



68 THE KANSAS CONFLICT, 

infected was Amos A. Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence was a con- 
servative of the conservatives, a Hunker, as he chose to call 
himself, yet no man had greater enthusiasm or worked more 
persistently and earnestly than he from first to last. His great 
wealth, and greater influence, were thrown into the cause 
without reserve. No man in the nation stood higher finan- 
cially, socially, or as a philanthropist, and with his name 
associated with the movement as treasurer, no man, however 
conservative, was afraid to endorse and aid the enterprise. 
Seciuring such men as Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Wilhams, Dr. 
Cabot, Rev. Mr. Hale, and others like them, Mr. Thayer could 
well afford to entrust the finances and details to them, while 
he preached the crusade among the people, and imbued the 
churches, the mechanics, the farmers, and laborers with his 
spirit, till men should be found to take possession of the land 
in conflict — men of conviction, and men who would die, if 
need be, in defense of their convictions. 

Henry Wilson says of Mr. Thayer's work, in his " Rise 
and FaU of the Slave Power," Vol. II., page 465, as follows: 

" To this work Mr. Thayer devoted himself with tireless 
energy and unceasing effort. Fully impressed with the idea 
that the free States had the power to secure in this way 
freedom to the Territories, he travelled sixty thousand miles, 
and made hundreds of speeches enunciating these views, and 
calling upon the people to join in this grand crusade." 

The effect of Mr. Thayer's speeches may be learned from 
a report of his speech at Cambridge, as found in the Chron- 
icle of November 22, 1856, as follows: 

" After Professor Hedrick's remarks, it was a relief when the broad, 
cahn brow of Mr. Thayer loomed up before us. We were requested 
not to report his speech, and shall therefore only speak of it in general 
terms. It was more even than we had hoped for, and, whether consid- 
ered as a speech or as an argument, was a powerful effort. Such deep 
penetration into and entire grasp of his subject; such an aptness of 
expression, and illustration, we seldom find. The views he took have 
not been presented by the press or public speakers — they are new to 
the people ; but unquestionably sound, as they are hopeful to freedom ; 



THE EMIGRANT AID COMPANY. 69 

and as he presented them we cannot doubt that they were convincing 
to his audience." 

On arriving in Boston, in answer to the call of the trustees, 
Dr. Robinson found them in the office of the Emigrant Aid 
Company, with Dr. T. H. Webb, their very efficient secre- 
tary. Here the whole question of emigration to Kansas was 
discussed, ending with a carte blanche commission to the 
Doctor to visit the Territory and arrange for its settlement. 
Mr. Lawrence advanced the money for the expenses of the 
journey from his personal funds, and gave a letter of credit 
on a merchant of St. Louis for $200. It was arranged that 
a young lawyer of Holyoke, C. H. Branscomb, should join 
Dr. Robinson at Springfield and accompany him. Instead 
of following the route of the Boston party on their trip to 
California in 1849, by canal and steamboat, the route was 
taken through Chicago to St. Louis, Here a steamer was 
taken for Kansas City. As the boat passed Jefferson City, 
on the 4th of July, it took on board several men of note in 
political circles, as the Legislature had adjourned for the 
holiday. These men possessed many of the characteristics 
of the speculators of Sacramento in 1849 and 1850, and 
their threats and swagger about driving Northern men from 
Kansas had a familiar sound to one person, who was a list- 
ener rather than a talker. The Emigrant Aid Company re- 
ceived a large share of their attention, not excepting Eli 
Thayer, for whose head a liberal reward would be given. 
It was fully proclaimed that no anti-slavery man should be 
permitted to settle in the Territory, and all Northern men 
were anti-slavery, or aboHtionists. On landing at Kansas 
City, it was found to be greatly improved since the spring of 
1849. Some substantial buildings had been erected and the 
population greatly increased. Here were found, beside the 
noisy pro-slavery advocates, several quiet, civil, and accom- 
modating business men. The Gillis House was a substantial 
brick structure, in charge of Gains Jenkins, a most excellent 
man and obliging landlord. Also, here were Mr. Conant, a 



70 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

merchant of the highest merit, and Mr. Riddlesbarger with 
his commodious warehouse. All these gentlemen welcomed 
Free-State men with as much cordiality as pro-slavery, and 
some of them with more. One of the most genial and pub- 
lic-spirited citizens to be found in any community was Dr. 
Lykins, who was familiar with the situation, within and with- 
out the Territory, with the Indian tribes and reservations, as 
well as with the lands opened to settlement by Indian treaties. 
Mr. Gillis and Dr. Troost were also prominent figures in the 
community, and most agreeable gentlemen. Knowing that 
Kansas City was likely to become the gateway to the vast 
regions beyond, and that emigrants from the East must land 
at this point, terms were procured for the purchase of the 
Gillis House and of a tract of land where later was built the 
Union Depot. The hotel was purchased by the company, 
but the land declined. Mr. Thayer was favorable to this 
purchase, as he would have the enterprise self-supporting, 
but other members were in the movement purely from 
motives of patriotism and philanthropy. Had this land been 
purchased, as recommended by the agent, its value would 
now be beyond computation. At this time treaties had been 
made with the Delaware tribe of Indians for disposing of 
some of their lands, but they were to be sold to the highest 
bidder, and were not to be opened for pre-emption. The 
Shawnee treaty, not yet complete, would open to pre-emp- 
tion their lands west of the diminished reservation, which 
extended about thirty miles west of the Missouri State line, 
though these had not yet been surveyed. These lands, lying 
along the Kansas River on the south side, were the most 
eligible for settlement outside of Indian reservations. To 
learn the situation definitely, Branscomb and Robinson sep- 
arated at Kansas City, the first going up the Kansas River 
to Fort Riley, and the other up the Missouri to Fort Leaven- 
worth. Although the lands on the Missouri were not open 
to pre-emption, some surveyors were found at work laying 
off a town at the present site of Leavenworth City. On re- 



FIRST PARTY OF EMIGRANTS. 7 1 

turning to Kansas City, Robinson found a letter informing 
him that the first party of emigrants from Boston was about 
to start for Kansas, and directing him to meet it at St. Louis, 
which he did. A letter was given to him directing him to 
return to Boston as soon as this party should be taken to the 
Territory. As Mr. Branscomb would return to Kansas City 
from his trip to Fort Riley before the party could reach that 
point, a letter was forwarded to him to look after the emi- 
grants, and Robinson started East to obey the summons. 
When the party arrived at Kansas City it met not only Mr. 
Branscomb, but Colonel Blood, of Wisconsin, who had been 
employed by Mr. Lawrence to visit the Territory. He had 
much experience in new settlements and understood the pre- 
emption laws. His account of the arrival and settlement of 
this party is given in the Lawrence Journal oi January 12, 
1 89 1, as follows: 

"In August of that year (1854), when the first party of 
Eastern immigrants arrived at Kansas City, Mr. Branscomb 
and I were both there. We had considerable consultation 
about where they should locate. Mr. Branscomb appeared 
very anxious that they should settle upon the Wyandotte 
reservation. In fact, he advocated that idea so earnestly 
that he induced a committee, representing the party of set- 
tlers, to go the next day with us to see Abelard Guthrie, ' a 
squaw man,' who offered his protection and assistance, and 
proposed to allow us to lay out a town, and make a landing 
on the Missouri River. But as that country was then an 
Indian reservation, no white men were allowed to settle or 
reside there without permission of the United States Govern- 
ment ; the committee concluded that the scheme was imprac- 
ticable. I think the committee that went with us over into 
the Wyandotte country was composed of D. R. Anthony, 
now of Leavenworth, Samuel F. Tappan, now residing at 
Washington, and A. H. Mallory, now at Leadville, Colorado, 
or Dr. Harrington. As I had obtained information that 
the Shawnee Indians had ceded their reservation south of 



72 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the Kansas River, except a tract extending thirty miles west 
of the State of Missouri, and that the portion ceded was 
suitable for settlement, and the most available, the party de- 
cided to come up here. Mr. Branscomb came with them. 
I also came along on horseback, in company with a gentle- 
man by the name of Cobb. The night before arriving here 
the party went into camp at the Blue Jacket crossing of the 
Wakarusa, Mr. Cobb and I stopped for the night at Dr. 
Still's, a short distance east of the crossing. The next morn- 
ing I rode to the top of Blue Mound, from there crossing 
the Wakarusa at Blanton's Ford, arrived some time in the 
forenoon on the hill where the University now stands, find- 
ing the party there pitching their tents and unloading their 
wagons. I met Mr. Branscomb there that day. He in- 
formed me that he had bought a claim of a Mr. Stearns, and 
had agreed to pay him $500 for it, and that Mr. Wade had 
a claim some distance up the river that he offered to sell for 
$1000, and he, Mr. Branscomb, advised and urged me to 
buy it. I replied that I regarded the buying of claims at 
that time as impolitic. Soon after, I think the next day, Mr. 
Branscomb left here for the East, and did not return here 
that year, nor for a long time after. * * * i was in 
Kansas City when the second party arrived there in Septem- 
ber, in charge of Charles Robinson and S. C. Pomeroy. 
After consultation, they decided to come up here. On arriv- 
ing here, we found a part of the first party still living in tents 
on the hill. Most of them that remained here had taken 
farm claims in the vicinity. We came down to the river, 
and after viewing the location, they decided to locate and 
lay out the town. Governor Robinson pitched his tent near 
the bank of the river, near where the jail now stands. Soon 
after a survey of the town was made, a town company or as- 
sociation was organized, and the town given a name, Law- 
rence. I believe the foregoing to be a correct statement of 
events that occurred relating to the selection of the town 
site. Governor Robinson and some one or two hundred 



UNFAVORABLE PUBLIC SENTIMENT. 73 

Others who came with him remained here and engaged in 
the erection of buildings, founding the city." 

With all the bluster and demonstrations from the South, 
and all the disadvantages under which the Free-State men 
would be placed, it required men of no little firmness to en- 
list as pioneers in the crusade. In a paper read by me be- 
fore the "Old Settlers'" meeting at Emporia, September i8, 
i88g, this reference to them is made: 

" Many looked upon Eh Thayer as mad, and his project 
as madness. Who could be found to go to Kansas with the 
certainty of meeting a hostile greeting of revolvers, bowie- 
knives, and all the desperadoes of the border ? But the in- 
spired prophet, who clearly saw the end from the beginning, 
had no doubts or misgivings, and obstacles which would have 
disheartened another man, were only incentives to greater 
efforts and more implicit faith in his plan. At length, after 
great labor, a party of twenty-nine men, who were willing to 
take their lives in their hands, went to Kansas in July, 1854. 
These men were regarded with as much interest as would be 
a like number of gladiators about to enter into deadly con- 
flict with wild beasts, or with each other. Hundreds of people 
gathered to bid them a final farewell, and ovations greeted 
them at all principal points between Boston and Chicago. 
But their example was contagious, and, as they were not 
slaughtered on their arrival in Kansas, other parties soon fol- 
lowed, as well as men without parties, from all the Northern 
States." 

The agitation relative to taking possession of Kansas was 
by no means confined to the East. It extended to every 
State in the Union with more or less violence. Neither were 
the members of the first Eastern party the first Free-State 
men to enter upon the field of battle. As before stated, 
such men as S. N. Wood, J. A.Wakefield, Rev. Mr. Ferril, and 
others were on the ground when this party reached its des- 
tination, but no men or party of men had attracted so much 
attention, either at the North or at the South, and they were 



74 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the focus of all eyes watching the struggle of the giants, free- 
dom and slavery, about to commence on Kansas soil. The 
names of this party will go down the ages as the names of 
men who dared begin a conflict against great odds. To 
single out individuals would seem invidious. Few are still 
living. D. R. Anthony, brother of Susan B. Anthony, who 
came with the party but returned East till 1857, is a fit 
specimen of the material required to beat back the black 
waves of slavery from Kansas. He was and is and ever 
will be irrepressible. No cause espoused by him from con- 
viction will be relinquished while his life remains. The same 
may be said of such men as S. F. Tappan, Ferdinand Fuller, 
J. F. Morgan, G. W. Goss, and, in short, of the whole party. 
S. N. Wood also, from Ohio, who preceded the party, was 
a man without fear. Colonel D. R. Anthony, in introducing 
Colonel Wood at the quarter-centennial celebration, said : 

" Thirty years ago I rode from Lawrence to Kansas City 
with a gentleman who is now in this house. At Westport 
we stopped at what might now be called a saloon, and took 
a drink — of water — and watered our horses. On the wall 
of this saloon was a poster, offering $1000 reward for Eli 
Thayer, the founder of the New England Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany, dead or alive. We asked what they would do with 
Eli Thayer if they had him ; the reply was that he would be 
hanged. This gentleman who was with me stepped up and 
said : ' I am Eh Thayer. Proceed to hang.' He was not 
hanged, but I have the honor this evening of introducing him 
to you. He was one of the truest of the pioneers in the 
great struggle. His name is a household word ; he is better 
known as ' Sam Wood.' " 

The second party sent out under the auspices of the 
Emigrant Aid Company left Boston August 29, 1854, arriv- 
ing at Kansas City September 6th, and was accompanied by 
S. C. Pomeroy, financial agent, and Charles Robinson, resi- 
dent agent, of the company. This party went to Lawrence, 
formed a union with the first party, and began the settlement 



SETTLEMENTS. 75 

of the town, which was surveyed and platted by A. D. Searl, 
under the direction of a committee of which Robinson was 
chairman. No sooner had definite arrangements been made 
for a permanent settlement at Lawrence than the conflict 
began in earnest. The first act in the drama was to be the 
ejectment of all Free-State men on a pretense of prior claims 
to the land. The plot of this play was the same as of that 
at Sacramento, under Sutter's grant, with only a change of 
scenery. As several of the Free-State settlers at Lawrence 
had more or less prominent parts in that play, they were at 
home in this. 

On or before the passage of the bill opening the Territory 
to settlement, pro-slavery men from Missouri rushed over 
the line, marked trees, and drove stakes in every direction. 
No claim could be taken by a Free-State man to which a 
pro-slavery man could not be found to assert a prior claim. 
It was the Sacramento game over again, with squatter's 
title instead of Sutter's deeds. Neither left an acre of un- 
claimed land for the bona fide settler. Colonel S. N. 
Wood, in his quarter-centennial speech at Topeka, said : 
" No sooner was Kansas opened to settlement than the 
minions of the slave power swarmed across the border, seem- 
ingly determined to occupy the whole Territory. Leaven- 
worth, Atchison, Kickapoo, Iowa Point, Doniphan, and 
other places were occupied. These were the pioneers of 
the slave power." 

Andreas, in his history, page '^2)i says : " The influx of 
Missourians into Kansas occurred immediately after the 
passage of the territorial act ; indeed, prior to its final pas- 
sage the best of the lands ceded by the tribes had been spot- 
ted and marked for pre-emption by residents of Missouri. 
This occupation was made with undue haste, and against 
the protests of the Indians whose time of occupancy under 
the treaties was yet unexpired. * * * The ubiquitous citi- 
zens, having homes in Missoiu-i and squatter's claims in the 
adjoining territory, promptly organized defensively against 



76 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the possible encroachments of the expected and hated emi- 
grants from the North." 

Colonel Wood, in his speech at Topeka, said : 

" The pro-slavery men from Missouri had met in Kansas and 
adopted a code of squatter laws, and the whole Territory seemed staked 
into claims. They had a register of claims, with an ofifice at Westport, 
Missouri. One law of this remarkable code provided that Nebraska 
was for the North and Kansas for the South. One provision was, 
that every white-livered abolitionist who dared to set foot in Kansas 
should be hung; and, that there might be no mistake, they added, 
' Every man north of Mason and Dixon's line is an abolitionist.' " 

Andreas gives resolutions of squatter conventions and 
newspaper extracts on page S;^, some of which follow. At 
a meeting at Salt Creek Valley it was resolved : 

" That we recognize the institution of Slavery as akvays existing in 
this Territory, and recommend slave-holders to introduce their property 
as early as possible. 

" That we will afford protection to no abolitionists as settlers of 
Kansas Territory." 

The Democratic Platform, Liberty, Missouri, June 8, 1854, 
says: 

" We learn from a gentleman lately from the Territory of Kansas 
that a great many Missourians have already set their pegs in that 
country, and are making arrangements to ' darken the atmosphere ' 
with their negroes. This is right. Let every man that owns a negro 
go there and settle, and our Northern brethren will be compelled to 
hunt further north for a location." 

The Platte Argus, Missouri, has the following : 

" Mormons — We are advised that the abolition societies of New 
England are shipping their tools, at the public expense, as Mormons, 
ostensibly for Salt Lake, but that it is the real design of these worthies 
to stop in Kansas Territory .for the purpose of voting to establish a 
free State and an underground railroad. We say, let the Mormons go 
their way in peace to Utah, but if they remain in Kansas to inflict the 
blighting curse of their principles upon the future policy of the country 
— let a Mormon war be declared forthwith. 

"Citizens of the West, of the South, and Illinois! stake out your 
claims, and woe be to the abolitionist or Mormon who shall intrude 



SETTLERS' ASSOCIATIONS. 



77 



upon it, or come within reach of your long and true rifles, or within 
point-blank shot of your revolvers. Keep a sharp lookout lest some 
dark night you shall see the flames curling from your houses or the 
midnight philanthropist hurrying off your faithful servant." 

At a meeting held in Independence, Missouri, the senti- 
ment of the people was expressed as follows : 

"Resolved, That we, without distinction of party, desire to act in 
accordance with what is right and due, not only to interests of the 
South, but likewise to interests of the North, and though knowing that 
the North, through certain fanatics, has endeavored to dictate to the 
South, we yet wish to meet them as brothers and friends, and only ask 
our rights as compromise, viz. : 

" That we, the South, be permitted peaceably to possess Kansas, 
while the North, on the same privilege, be permitted to possess 
Nebraska Territory." 

In some instances the organization of Northern emigra- 
tion was pleaded as an excuse for such action. But at no time 
had there been an attempt at the North to use other than 
legitimate means in assisting emigration. There was no 
employment of mercenaries, no defraying of expenses even, 
and no discrimination on account of poHtical or other views 
the emigrant might entertain. A pro-slavery man had the 
same facilities as a Free-State man. The same was true of 
the settlements in the Territory. A pro-slavery man was 
entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of the 
most favored Free-State man. The truth seems to be that 
the slave interest demanded Kansas, and it was to be secured 
at all hazards, legally or illegally, and the plea of organized 
Northern emigration was on a par with the plea of the specu- 
lators in California, that the squatters were "agrarians," 
" higher-law " men, bent on fighting all Mexican grants, right 
or wrong. In both cases an outrage was determined upon, 
and a false issue must be made to afford some excuse to the 
world. 

Besides the organization at Salt Creek Valley, other asso- 
ciations were formed in different parts of the Territory, in 



78 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the summer and fall of 1854, nearly all of which provided 
for the protection of all settlers except abolitionists. As 
Free-State settlers arrived in a neighborhood, these restric- 
tions would be voted out and all but actual settlers disfran- 
chised. Such a meeting was held at B. W. Miller's house, 
on the California road, southwest of Lawrence. When the 
pro-slavery non-residents failed to control the association, 
they reported at Westport, Missouri, where an organization 
could be perfected without opposition from the free-soil 
squatters of Kansas. The name of this association, which 
met at Miller's, was " The Mutual Settlers' Association of 
Kansas Territory," and it had for officers, a chief justice, 
register, marshal, and treasurer. While it was contemplated 
that all disputes would be settled by these courts, these were, 
in fact, but little used, as they were far too formal and dila- 
tory to meet most cases. As a rule, squatters settled their 
disputes in person, appealing to no higher authority than 
physical force or bluster. One man, who had played the 
role of "Bombastes Furioso " in the squatter troubles in Cali- 
fornia, although not at the fight, was for a time quite useful 
in Kansas. When pro-slavery men would appear, if sur- 
rounded by his friends, he would become furiously excited, 
pulling off his coat and vest preparatory to a personal en- 
counter. This would have the effect of inducing the pro- 
slavery men to pass on. At length, however, some men 
appeared who were not frightened by contortions or wind. 
Bombastes raved and writhed as usual, but produced no 
impression. The Missourians were rather amused than 
frightened. Even the shedding of coat and vest had no 
effect, and Bombastes had to call upon his friends to " hold 
me," and prevent a fatal encounter. This ended Furioso's 
career as bully, and he subsided. 

The most serious and determined claim disputes were to 
be found at Lawrence, in the fall of 1854 and winter of 
1855. At this time Lawrence was the only Free-State town 
of importance in the Territory, and, if possible, it must be 



CLAIM CONFLICTS. 7g 

obliterated. When the site was selected for a town, but one 
settler, Mr. Stearns, occupied it, and his improvement and 
claim were purchased by the agent of the Aid Company for 
$500, and the cabin converted into a store. Another settler, 
A. B. Wade, was near the site on the west, but he retained 
his claim, as it was not needed for the town. However, 
soon after taking possession, other claimants appeared, and 
insisted that the town should vacate for them. The most 
belligerent of these claimants was John Baldwin. He estab- 
lished himself within five or ten rods of the Stearns cabin 
bought for the town, and asserted his right to one hundred 
and sixty acres of land. He employed a young man named 
C. W. Babcock as his attorney. As the lands had not yet 
been surveyed, it was impossible to tell where section lines 
would run, and the town company were disposed to act 
strictly on the defensive. The managers were satisfied to 
leave the question of title to the Land Office or the courts, 
and it was immaterial how many persons set up claim to the 
town site. Not so, however, with Baldwin and Company, 
Although, if their claims were valid, the more occupants and 
improvements the better for them, they determined to remove 
all occupants and all improvements from their claims, which 
covered, or would cover if heeded, nearly the whole territory 
opened to setdement. While the motive that actuated pro- 
slavery men was to forestall the Free-State settlers and pre- 
vent them from getting a foothold in the Territory, some of 
the claimants at Lawrence cared nothing for the slavery 
question, but simply wanted to be bought off. They took 
advantage for this purpose of the pro-slavery sentiment. A 
town site was platted at Lawrence about two and one-half 
miles by one and one-half miles, although, under the pre- 
emption laws, but three hundred and twenty acres could be 
held for town purposes. This made it necessary to hold the 
excess by private entry, and men were assigned to different 
parts of the plat for the purpose. The pro-slavery men, or 
blackmail Free-State men. also laid claim to this land and 



8o THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

would clear it of all coiners. The agent of the Aid Com- 
pany advocated the same policy as was adopted by the 
squatters in California, namely, let each settler be protected 
in occupancy till a legal decision could be had, and this 
policy was adopted by the Lawrence town company. But 
this would not answer the purposes of the contestants, for the 
pro-slavery men were determined to prevent the settlement of 
Free-State men, right or wrong, and the blackmailers knew 
they had no case, and must get blackmail then or lose all. 

The first conflict threatened by this state of things is de- 
scribed in Andrea's history, on pages 314 and 3 1 5, as follows : 

" In the meantime Baldwin associated with himself Messrs. Babcock, 
Stone, and Freeman, men of some means and influence, and put his 
business into the hands of a speculator named Starr, who immediately 
proceeded to lay out a rival city, which he named Excelsior, on the 
claim ; Mr. Baldwin and the Lawrence Association both occupying tents 
upon it, in proof of ownership. The strife grew bitter, and although 
purely one of conflicting property rights — the parties being nearly all 
Free-State men — was represented, or misrepresented, to be a quarrel 
between the pro-slavery men and abolitionists. Matters stood thus : 
Mr. Baldwin occupying his tent and the Yankees scowling defiantly 
at him across the ravine, until, on the 5th of October, notice was given 
that open war was declared, by the appearance of a wagon containing 
several armed men in the vicinity of the New England tent. Hos- 
tilities were commenced by a woman, a sister of Mr. Baldwin, it was 
stated, who speedily packed the obnoxious tent with its contents 
into the wagon — the men with their rifles standing guard. As soon as 
they were discovered by the Yankees, who were at work in the neigh- 
borhood, the city marshal, Joel Grover, rushed to the rescue unarmed, 
followed by Edwin Bond with a revolver. The latter seized the horse 
by the bridle, ordering the surrender of the property, and others com- 
ing up, the intruders allowed the tent to be replaced, at the same time 
threatening to have two hundred Missourians on the spot in a short 
time, when their designs would be accomplished. That night the 
Lawrence settlers organized what they called the ' Regulating Band,' 
to be ready for the next day's fray. Soon after dinner on the 6th, 'the 
Missourians,' by which name all Southerners opposed to the aims of 
the Emigrant Aid Society were called, began to assemble in the neigh- 
borhood of Baldwin's tent, but open hostilities did not commence until 
four o'clock P.M. when the gage of battle was hurled at the Yankees in 
the shape of the following note : 



CONFLICT AT LAWRENCE. 8 1 

" ' Kansas Territory, October 6th. 
"'Dr. Robinson: — ^Yourself and friends are hereby notified that 
you will have one-half hour to move the tent which you have on my 
undisputed claim, and from this date desist from surveying on said 
claim. If the tent is not moved within one-half hour, we shall take the 
trouble to move the same. (Signed,) 

"'John Baldwin and Friends.' 

" The following pithy reply was instantly returned : 

" ' To John Baldwin and Friends. 

" ' If you molest our property, you do it at your peril. 

" ' C. Robinson and Friends.'" 

E. D. Ladd, first acting postmaster of Lawrence, tells the 
remainder of the story in a letter dated October 23, 1854, 
and pubHshed in the Milwaukee Sentinel. He says: 

" Prior to the notice, they had assembled to the number of eighteen, 
mounted and armed, at Baldwin's, the aggrieved man's tent, on the 
claim, and about twenty rods from our camp. Upon the notice being 
served, our men — those who were at work about and in the vicinity of 
the camp — to the number of about thirty, stationed themselves about 
ten rods from the contested tent, the enemy being about the same dis- 
tance from it, the three occupying the angles of a right-angled triangle, 
the tent being at the right angle. Subsequent to the notice, a consul- 
tation was held at our position between Dr. Robinson and a delegate 
from the enemy's post, which ended on our part with the proposition of 
Dr. Robinson — which proposition he had previously made, both to 
Baldwin and his legal adviser, or rather speculator, who wished to 
make a ' heap of money,' as the Missourians say, out of him — to sub- 
mit the question in dispute to the arbitration of disinterested and un- 
biased men, to the adjudication of the squatter courts now existing here, 
or of the United States Courts, and on the part of the enemy by the 
assurance that, at the termination of the notice, they should proceed at 
all hazards to remove the tent, and if they fell in the attempt, our fate 
would be sealed, our extermination certain, for three thousand, and if 
necessary thirty thousand, men would immediately be raised in Mis- 
souri to sweep us and our enterprise from the face of the earth. It was 
all expressed, of course, in the Southwestern phrases, which I will not 
attempt to give. The hour passed on, or rather the half-hour, and in 
the meantime our military company, formed the evening before, went 
through a variety of — I don't want, out of respect for military science, 
to call them ' evolutions,' say we call them ' manifestations,' marching 
and counter-marching, in single file and by platoons, in a manner not to 



82 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

be excelled in greenness by any greenhorns (in this business, I mean) 
on the face of the globe, our captain himself being as green as the 
greenest. General, I fear for your buttons could you have seen them. 
But there were strong arms and determined wills there. Had a man 
laid a finger on that tent, he would have been sacrificed instantly, and 
had another single offensive movement been made by one of them, 
there would not have been a man left to tell the tale. Our company of 
thirty men had about four hundred shots in hand, with their rifles and 
revolvers, and they would have used them to the last extremity. They 
had been annoyed by every means possible, and even tauntingly told to 
their faces, a dozen of them together, that no Yankee, except Cilley, 
ever dared to fire. Well, the half-hour passed, and another quarter, 
the enemy in full view in consultation, occasionally making a movement 
as if about to form in order for the execution of their threat, then seat- 
ing themselves upon the ground for further consultation, perhaps 
occasioned by the ' manifestations ' of our military. While thus wait- 
ing, John Hutchinson asked Dr. Robinson what he would do if they 
should attempt to remove the tent? would he fire to hit them, or would 
he fire over them? Dr. Robinson replied that he ' would be ashamed 
to fire at a man and not hit him.' Immediately after this reply, a man 
who had been with the Free-State men, and till then supposed to be 
one of them, went over to the other party, which soon after dispersed. 
It was supposed at the time that the report of this spy brought the 
' war ' to an end for that day. After the band had mounted and dis- 
persed, the principals and principal instigators avoided our neighbor- 
hood. Some of the more honest dupes, however, seeing the absurdity 
of their position, and the reasonableness of our proposition, riding up 
to us had a social chat, cracking jokes, etc., and then rode off with the 
determination formed, and more than half expressed, of never being 
caught in so ridiculous a farce again." 

Although no three thousand or thirty thousand men made 
their appearance after this bloodless war, the claimants were 
by no means satisfied, and dire vengeance was threatened. 
The report of the trouble was industriously circulated among 
pro-slavery settlers far and near, and at length the following 
call was issued : 

" TERRITORIAL INDIGNATION MEETING. 

"We, the Sovereign people of Kansas Territory, are requested to 
meet at Lawrence City, January ii, at ii o'clock a.m., to adopt those 
measures that will protect us from all moneyed associations or influ- 
ences, also the tyrannical encroachments daily made by the Lawrence 



"HAWHAW" CHAPMAN. 83 

Association. On which occasion there will be speeches made to vin- 
dicate the squatters' rights of pre-emption, and the protection of his 
claim until entered. 

" Many Citizens." 

The following, taken from " Incidents of Early Times," 
by Hon. John Speer, in the Kansas Tribune, will convey 
some idea of the quarrel and the character of the meeting to 
consider the claim dispute : 

" We had several meetings, and had a good deal of bitterness at some 
of them. There were fights and fusses all around. In Lawrence the 
contest was a good deal between the 'outsiders' and the 'insiders.' 
The latter were the Lawrence Association, and the former ' squatters ' who 
were in opposition to it. These associations related to claims to the 
town site, but as the town company was mostly Free-State men, it 
necessarily arrayed all the pro-slavery element against it, which with 
the property claimants in opposition made a strong force. 

" Several persons from slave States professed to be against slavery 
in Kansas. They generally wanted a ' free white State.' Commotions 
and fights and rumors of fights were frequent. A few Yankees wanted 
to ' argue ' the matter, but the more they wanted to argue, the more 
their opponents were bound to fight. 

"Among them came a man named Edward Chapman. He had a 
hare-lip and a tied tongue, and he made the most of these deformities 
by pretending that a bullet had passed through his mouth at the battle 
of Buena Vista. He boasted of his blood, but it was found that all his 
claim to superiority of blood was derived from having once been a groom 
to a race-horse. From his defective pronunciation, and to distinguish 
him from others of that name, he was called ' Hawhaw ' Chapman. A 
great man was Hawhaw. The mock-heroic of his composition was 
only excelled by his cowardice, but he was the bravest man where there 
was no enemy that we ever saw. They told a story of him that he was 
consulting with a Free-State man with the greatest profession of Free- 
Stateism, when suddenly a gang of armed pro-slavery ruffians rushed 
upon them. The Free-State man jumped into a thicket out of sight, 
but HawhaAv was headed off and he threw up his hands, exclaiming, 
' I'm hro-hlavery, by 'od. ' He cut down a cabin frame with an axe, 
and was arrested and taken before Judge Lecompte at the Shawnee 
Mission. His vandal spirit was a good deal broken, and we went his 
bail for appearance and to keep the peace. He understood the bond 
differently from ourselves, and wanted to keep a piece of the cabin he 
had mutilated — in other words, to steal the house. He killed a man 
with a club, but as it was a fight between two pro-slavery men, nobody 



84 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

ever took any other notice of it. Hawhaw was elected as a pro-slavery 
man to the Legislature. He was great as a statesman, for he could 
speak an hour without anybody knowing what he said. 

" Fortunately, a specimen of his style is perpetuated in print. A 
great squatter meeting was held to denounce the Lawrence Association, 
and Hawhaw presented his remarks and his resolutions in writing, and 
as nobody could tell what he said, his resolutions were passed unani- 
mously amid great pro-slavery enthusiasm. We quote from the Kansas 
Tribitite of January 24, 1855 : 

" ' Pursuant to the call, the squatters of Kansas Territory assembled 
in large numbers, on the lith day of January, 1855, and long before the 
hour of meeting the streets were thronged with the multitude. We 
had never before attended a meeting so boisterous and violent as this 

one. There were five hundred persons present, all armed. Jones, 

still living here, undertook to speak against G. W. Clarke on a claim 
question. The stand was a store box, and Clarke "went for him" in 
the rear, sending him at least a rod over the heads of the crowd around 
the stand. Revolvers were quickly hauled, and Clarke undertook to 
shoot Governor Robinson. Still there was no bloodshed. 

" * When Hawhaw's printed proceedings came out, however, they 
were too ridiculous to excite anything but merriment. When Robin- 
son read them he merely remarked that he would rather be a "false 
Belshazzar " than a real one.' 

"HAWHAW^'S SPEECH. 

" ' Fellow-citizens: The assemblage of the sovereign people on 
this day, by a spontaneous impulse and for a common purpose, is a most 
glorious spectacle. And we, too, friends and neighbors, are here 
together. The toils and cares of our daily avocations are laid aside ; 
the disquietudes and strifes that vex our poor humanity shall be lost in 
the mutual recognition of one gi-and sentiment. And the turbulent, 
selfish interests here manifested for a period — under the overshadowing 
spell of sectional influences, which gloom pervades the hearts of men, 
whose actors upon the grand rostrum of the future, choose as their 
talisman the sovereign ear whose compunction some slight affectionate 
cares of every victim of the oppressor triumph as the idol of their vain 
madness, and of their midnight orgies, which forever crush the rights 
of this people. 

" ' We have been weak, now in justice we are strong — more imposing 
than of forty centuries from the old pyramids — the intellectual and pro- 
gressive years of self-government of a free people. The fraternal influ- 
ences — what are they? And why are we here this day? 

" ' A handful of men on the western bank of the remotest tributary, 



MEETING OF SQUATTERS. 85 

whose waters pay homage to the father of waters, and yet only in the 
centre of this immense confederacy, whose shade is a refuge for all 
nations of the earth, and the free breezes that unceasingly sweep 
through the branches, over the silent sepulchres of those who fought 
the good fight and proclaimed to the world to be a free, independent 
and sovereign people. The seed which they planted with tremulous 
apprehension are here this day, commingling their patriotic rebukes 
against that mercenary morbidness which characterizes the Lawrence 
Association as stock-jobbers and money-getters — men of exchanges and 
coteries and self-interest — covered from head to foot with the leprosy 
of materialism, until it shall submerge all opposition, by secret and 
unjust invasions which from their first advent in Kansas Territory up 
to the present is opulence, title, and despotism with civil feuds, dissev- 
ering all fraternal affections. We, the sovereign squatters, proclaim 
the manifesto of our absolute authority and an inexorable interdict to 
every despotic invader upon our rights, secured and sanctified by the 
Congress of the United States. "Thus far shalt thou go and no 
farther." We, the sovereign squatters, stand forth boldly upon our 
commanding eminence — the highest law of the land. 

" ' Compromising the plighted faith of the Government that the land 
we now occupy shall be our future homes upon which eminence we this 
day invite for the last time the false Belshazzar who with restless gaze 
views the dauntless energy which guides us to this grand consumma- 
tion. If wrong in statements here made this day of your unjust inva- 
sions, nerve the lost, mutilated, and tattered honor — dishonored and 
blackened with treason, incapable of sincere demonstration against our 
rights as sovereign squatters that these lands shall be our homes ; 
on which occasion we proclaim to the world the wrongs which, by 
foreign intrigue and hypocrisy which you this day are called to 
deny the immutable facts whose design is imperishable tyranny ; to 
take from the poor man his home ; to enrich those that now in luxury 
dwell.' 

"And this is what old Hawhaw proposed to do with the 'false 
Belshazzar ' : 

" 'Resolved, That as on former occasions C. Robinson should again 
call to his aid the gallant hussars No. i, supported by his shot-gun 
battalion, in forcing us from our rights ; that we, the sovereign 
squatters of Kansas Territory, will take his honor and battalion and 
deal with them according to laws, rules, and regulations prescribed 
therein that we may adopt. ' 

" Ridiculous as these extracts are, they are literally just as they 
were passed and as Hawhaw wrote them out. They were mainly 
directed against Dr. (since Governor) Robinson, who was the ' false 



86 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Belshazzar ' of the occasion, and although Robinson was present when 
they were passed, as he couldn't understand a word that Hawhaw said, 
how could he object? But the other speeches by Clarke (the man who 
afterwards murdered Barber), Wood, and others were very bitter on 
Robinson and the whole association, and Robinson, Emery, Speer and 
others did reply to them." 

Andrea's history says of this meeting, page 318: 

" Many who attended this meeting were diametrically opposed to the 
proceedings, and to the resolutions adopted, and to make sure their 
position should not be misunderstood, a meeting of the citizens not 
members of the Lawrence Association was held at the ' church ' on the 
i6th, which denounced the proceedings of that on the nth as being 
' held and conducted in a one-sided, indecent, mob-like manner, and 
wholly in opposition to justice, right and honor,' and that as the 
' endeavor was made to make us responsible for those proceedings, we 
therefore disavow all complicity or assent thereto and denounce the origi- 
nators as demagogues.' The course pursued by the Lawrence Associa- 
tion was endorsed by the meeting of which S. J. Willis was president; 
Dr. J. F. Merriam, secretary ; Messrs. Stewart, Ladd, Pillsbury, Hart- 
well, and Lowe, vice-presidents. The resolutions presented by Messrs. 
Ladd, Emery, Doy, Mailey, Hutchinson, Man, Searl, Simpson, and 
Tappan were adopted. The third and fourth resolutions follow : 

" 'Resolved, That the organization of the Emigrant Aid Society has 
been of exceeding great benefit in the transmission of emigrants to the 
Territory ; and their establishing an agency in this city, and their invest- 
ment of capital herein has been a decided advantage to the place, towards 
its rapid growth, providing for the wants and alleviating the trials of 
the settlers, and we believe that their efforts thus far have been entirely 
disinterested ; and we therefore most cordially invite them to remain 
and continue their operations among us, at the same time assuring 
them of our sincere approval of the past, and of our co-operation in the 
future. 

" 'Resolved, That we, as citizens of Lawrence, particularly approve 
of the course pursued by the Lawrence Association towards the Emi- 
grant Aid Society in extending an invitation to that company to invest 
their capital here, and the basis upon which they are allowed to operate ; 
and we shall duly respect their city rights, and support them in all law- 
ful and liberal movements.' 

" At the same meeting the committee of the Lawrence Association, 
by their chairman, Mr. J. Hutchinson, reported the following resolu- 
tions, which were adopted : 



RESOLUTIONS OF ENDORSEMENT, 87 

" 'Resolved, That while believing there is no legal redress for tres- 
passes committed upon unsurveyed lands, we have never as an associa- 
tion approved of cutting timber upon individual claims, made in good 
faith ; but we fully discountenance such acts, believing them to be con- 
trary to equity and good order. 

" 'Resolved, That as the law holds a man's domicile no less sacred 
and inviolate than his person, we regard all persons who shall molest 
or destroy houses erected or in process of erection as men guilty of a 
henious offense and regardless of the law of the land. 

" 'Resolved, That while we uphold only justice and good order, we 
believe that neither the Lawrence Association nor their officers are 
accountable for individual acts civilly or politically, and that the late 
attempts to bring this association into bad repute and to cast upon us a 
stigma as undeserved as it is unjust, will bring down threefold odium 
upon the heads of the vile perpetrators.' 

" Dr. Robinson, towards the close of the meeting, made a short and 
sensible speech, refuting some of the charges made against him, coun- 
selling his hearers of the danger of quarrels among themselves, and 
impressing upon them the duty and necessity of union ; that they might, 
' with voice and hand and means combined, defend these hills and val- 
leys, these rivers and broad prairies from the curse of human bondage 
and the chains of slavery.' " 

But resolutions and counter resolutions availed nothing 
except to place the respective parties on record. The Free- 
State men were in no mood to be driven off, and the claim- 
ants were persistent for blackmail or the possession of the 
land. Hostilities were continued when occasion offered, to 
the annoyance of all concerned, whether on or off the town 
site. One day, on the return of the agent of the Aid Com- 
pany from a visit out of the settlement, he was informed that 
his own house, erected on Oread Hill, was being cut down 
by pro-slavery men. G. W. Deitzler, S. N. Wood, and S. 
N. Simpson volunteered to go to the battle-field, but, as 
soon as the house was reached, the cutting was discon- 
tinued and the vandals slunk away. Such men never liked 
Deitzler, Wood, and Simpson, and had no desire to associate 
with them on such occasions. They would sooner leave 
their work in hand unfinished than remain in such company. 

In the month of February, the resident agent of the Aid 



88 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Company went East, and returned with the first spring party 
in March, 1855. During his absence a compromise was 
effected with the claimants to the town site by hmiting the 
area to six hundred and forty acres, and giving four or five 
men one hundred out of two hundred and twenty shares into 
which the site was divided, leaving one hundred and ten 
shares for the original town company, and eight shares for 
the Emigrant Aid Company, with two shares in trust for the 
endowment of a school. This compromise was made with 
the consent of the financial agent of the Aid Company, who 
resided at Kansas City, Missouri. Why it was made has 
never appeared. These town-site jumpers had no more 
legal or equitable title to this one hundred shares than 
Franklin Pierce or Jeff Davis. 

The pre-emption law excepted from individual pre-emp- 
tion all "sections or fractions of sections included within 
the limits of any incorporated town, every portion of the 
public land which has been selected for a site for a city or 
town, and every parcel or lot of land actually settled or oc- 
cupied for the purposes of trade, and not agriculture." 

Lawrence was selected as a town site on the last of July, 
1854, and the commissioner of the Land Office said the 
Shawnee lands were not opened to settlement, by the extin- 
guishment of the Indian title, till September 28th of that 
year, therefore no individual claimant could acquire any right 
whatever before that date. Neither could he after it, as the 
place had already been selected and occupied for a town and 
for " purposes of trade and not agriculture." 

But the most unfortunate deal of all was the mutilation of 
South Park. That had been platted to extend to Quincy 
street on the north, Kentucky street on the west, Lee street 
on the south, and Rhode Island street on the east. To 
gratify the greed of the spoilsmen a strip of land, the width 
of one-half of a block on each side of the park was platted 
into lots, and divided among them, leaving the park as at 
present, bounded on all sides by alleys in the rear of the lots 



CLAIM CONTESTS. 



89 



appropriated, where can be found outhouses, stables, coal 
and wood sheds, ash-heaps, garbage and offal of all descrip- 
tions common to back yards of a city. In the original ar- 
rangement, the members of the town association were to have 
every other lot, leaving the remainder to be divided equally 
between the Aid Company, and parties who would improve 
the lots. Under this arrangement the company had in con- 
templation not only mills and hotel, but the erection of an 
educational institution for advanced pupils. As soon as this 
surrender was learned in the East, there was virtually an end 
of stock subscriptions in the company as an investment, and 
an end of all college building at Lawrence. But few shares 
of stock were afterwards subscribed, and money had to be 
raised on the contribution plan. Mr. Thayer turned his at- 
tention in this direction, and in 1856 had the entire North 
organized on this basis. 

Had this surrender quieted the title to Lawrence some 
equivalent might have been received, but it had no such 
effect. While the four town jumpers were quieted, a large 
number of other persons were dissatisfied, and set up protests 
and counter-claims, which were never put at rest till the title 
was finally adjusted by Government officials. The uncer- 
tainty of title was as great after the surrender as before, 
although the new claimants were content to await official 
action, while the jumpers were not. As late as August, 
1855, over ninety occupants of the town made a protest 
against this settlement showing its injustice and illegahty. 
Among other things they say : 

" We beg leave respectfully to submit that they are deeply dissatisfied 
with the ' settlement ' entered into in March last between your associa- 
tion on the one part, and Messrs. C. W. Babcock, J. P. Wood, Wm. 
Lykins, Wm. and John Baldwin, on the other. We are dissatisfied 
with this so-called settlement, because it is extremely well calculated, in 
our opinion, to impair the interests and check the progress of this town. 
By its operations nearly one-half of all the land embraced in the town 
plot is monopolized by half a dozen persons, whose right thereto 
emanates from the association alone, while the number of actual inhab- 



90 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

itants at the present time is not far from five hundred. At an early 
period the Lawrence Association adopted a policy with reference to those 
who desired to settle and acquire property in the town, well designed to 
stimulate its growth and increase its prosperity. That association 
adopted a resolution, October 9, 1854, ' to set apart every fourth lot in 
the city to be given to those who would build upon them, or to those to 
whom the association might deem it proper to donate the same.' On 
the i6th December, 1854, it also enacted ' that every person who was 
then, or might become, a resident of the town, and should remain during 
the winter, should be entitled to three city lots of the standard size, on 
condition of making improvements respecting the rules of the associa- 
tion, etc' 

" These measures were just and judicious. They were just because 
they served to distribute the land upon which the town was located to 
all the inhabitants thereof upon terms graduated according to the amount 
of service respectively rendered in building up the town and making 
valuable the lands upon which it was located. And being just, they 
were also judicious, because they extended a fair chance and solid in- 
terest to all who thought proper to accept the same, and in this way 
secured the settlement of a large number of persons who otherwise 
would not have come, and whose exertions and improvements contribute 
greatly to the advancement of the town. By the adoption of this settle- 
ment their wise and beneficent policy was necessarily abandoned, and 
nearly half of all the land pertaining to the city site allowed to pass into 
the possession of five men, thus creating a monopoly which is already 
showing deleterious and injurious effects upon this community, by the 
rapid decrease in the value of real estate, and the uncertainty which 
rests upon all business transactions. In consequence of this, also, the 
association was compelled to disregard, in a number of instances, its 
engagements with those who had come into the town upon the condi- 
tions of its previous policy. So completely was it stript of its resources 
by this silly transaction that it was constrained to repudiate some of its 
most binding obligations. The impelling motive to the adoption by the 
association of this strange measure seems to have been the desire to get 
rid of a claim, by the gentlemen above named, to a portion of the city 
site, and the association seems to have assented to the arrangement 
under a gross misapprehension of the true grounds upon which that 
claim was based, but the claim, as can now be seen by the foregoing 
argument, was without the slightest foundation." 



CHAPTER V. 

SETTLEMENTS. ELECTIONS. PUBLIC SENTIMENT. 

Notwithstanding the persistent effort of pro-slavery men 
to harass and drive off Free-State men on a pretext of priority 
of claims, not only at Lawrence but elsewhere, Free-State 
settlers remained, defended their rights to lands settled upon, 
and large accessions were constantly made to their numbers. 
Before winter set in, people from all parts of the East, North, 
and West, as well as the South, were moving to Kansas faster 
than accommodations could be provided for their comfort. 
The threats and bluster of the pro-slavery men and journals 
had served to stimulate rather than prevent Northern emigra- 
tion. The Herald of Freedom thus speaks of the emigration, 
March lo, 1855 : 

" The first company, consisting of thirty-one persons, arrived in 
Lawrence on the first day of August last ; the second party arrived the 
13th of September, and numbered one hundred and thirty; the third 
party arrived the 8th of October, and numbered one hundred and sixty- 
two ; the fourth party arrived October 30th, and numbered two hundred 
and thirty ; the fifth party arrived November 20th, with one hundred 
persons ; the sixth and last regular party of the season arrived Decem- 
ber 1st, and numbered fifty persons ; amounting in the aggregate to six 
hundred and seventy-three. But this does not begin to show the num- 
ber who were induced to emigrate to Kansas in consequence of this 
organization. Other portions of our confederacy, witnessing the great 
movement westward set in motion by this company, were induced to 
fall into line. The Pennsylvania company, numbering fully three hun- 
dred persons in all, were induced, to our certain knowledge, to come last 
season in consequence of the advantage they expected to derive from 
those connected with the Aid Company. Ohio sent forward her pio- 
neers, who were also strengthened in their purpose to locate here from 



92 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the same cause. Hundreds on hundreds of individuals from all parts 
of the free North were wakened up on the subject, and induced to 
emigrate on account of the description of the country, and the advan- 
tages to the settlers first furnished to the public press, and afterwards 
extensively copied into nearly every anti-Nebraska journal, by the 
agents of this organization. Even the American Settlement Company, 
which claims to have done so much towards populating Kansas, was 
but an offshoot of the New England organization, and owed its existence 
to Mr. Thayer's great speech in the Tabernacle, New York ; he having 
given birth to the New York Kansas League, and some of those con- 
nected with that League devised the Settlement Company. We have 
no doubt but, if all the instrumentalities which have operated to influence 
the public mind directly and indirectly, could be brought to light, it 
would appear that, instead of sending ' two or three hundred ' into the 
Territory from the free States, it would be manifest that they had 
influenced the settling of thousands among us — not a fiftieth part, how- 
ever, of the number they will eventually induce in the same direction, 
if need be, to make Kansas a free State." 

On November 29th was held an election for territorial 
delegate to Congress. As this election had no direct agency 
in State-making, it attracted much less attention than the 
election for a territorial Legislature which was held in the 
spring of 1855. But it was deemed of sufificient importance 
by the pro-slavery men to make extensive preparations for 
an invasion from Missouri. The machinery for controUing 
elections had been well provided in advance, and was ready 
for operation. The Congressional committee, in the report 
of the majority, make this statement, based upon testimony 
taken by it : 

" Before any election was or could be held in the Territory, a secret 
political society was formed in the State of Missouri. It was known 
by different names, such as ' Social Band,' ' Friends' Society,' ' Blue 
Lodge,' ' The Sons of the South.' Its members were bound together 
by secret oaths, and they had pass-words, signs, and grips, by which 
they were known to each other ; penalties were imposed for violating 
the rules and secrets of the order ; written minutes were kept of the 
proceedings of the lodges ; and the different lodges were connected 
together by an effective organization. It embraced great numbers of 
the citizens of Missouri, and was extended into other slave States and 
into the Territory. Its avowed purpose was to extend slavery not only 



DELEGATE ELECTION. 93 

into Kansas, but also into other Territories of the United States, and 
to form a union of all the friends of that institution. Its plan of oper- 
ating was to organize and send men to vote at the elections in the Ter- 
ritory, to collect money to pay their expenses, and, if necessary, to 
protect them in voting. It also proposed to induce pro-slavery men to 
emigrate into the Territory, to aid and sustain them while there, and to 
elect none to office but those friendly to their views. This dangerous 
society was controlled by men who avowed their purpose to extend 
slavery into the Territory at all hazards, and was altogether the most 
effective instrument in organizing the subsequent armed invasions and 
forays. In its lodges in Missouri the affairs of Kansas were discussed. 
The force necessary to control the election was divided into bands and 
leaders selected. Means were collected, and signs and badges were 
agreed upon. While the great body of the actual settlers of the Terri- 
tory were relying upon the rights secured to them by the organic law, 
and had formed no organization or combination whatever, even of a 
party character, this conspiracy against their rights was gathering 
strength in a neighboring State, and would have been sufficient at their 
first election to have overpowered them, even if they had been united 



The great champion and leader of the slavery propagan- 
dists, General D. R. Atchison, is reported by the 'Pla.tte Argus 
as explaining his position and that of his allies, at Weston, 
Missouri, as follows : 

" He would now pass to the settlement of Kansas, its destiny, and 
the effect it was to have upon the State of Missouri. 

" The organic law of the Territory vests in the people who reside 
in it the power to form all its municipal regulations. They can either 
admit or exclude slavery, and this is the only question that materially 
affects our interests. * * * 

" General Atchison said, that his mission here to-day was, if possible, 
to awaken the people of this country to the danger ahead, and to sug- 
gest the means to avoid it. The people of Kansas in their first election 
would decide the question whether or not the slave-holder was to be 
excluded, and it depended upon a majority of the votes cast at the polls. 
Now, if a set of fanatics and demagogues a thousand miles off could 
advance their money and exert every nerve to abolitionize the Territory 
and exclude the slave-holder when they have not the least personal 
interest in the matter, what is your duty ? When you reside within 
one day's journey of the Territory, and when your peace, your quiet, 
and your property depend upon your action, you can without an exer- 



94 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

tion send five hundred of your young men who will vote in favor of 
your institutions. Should each county in the State of Missouri only 
do its duty, the question will be decided quietly and peaceably at the 
ballot-box. If we are defeated, then Missouri and the other Southern 
States will have shown themselves recreant to their interests and will 
have deserved their fate. The abolitionists will have nothing to gain 
or lose. It is an abstraction with them. We have much to gain or 
much to lose. Said he : 'If you burn my barn, I sustain a great loss, 
but you gain nothing. So it is with the colonizationist societies and 
the dupes they send to abolitionize Kansas. If these abolitionists steal 
your negroes, they gain nothing. The negroes are injured; you are 
ruined. So much greater is the motive for activity on your part. Fel- 
low-citizens, we should not be apathetic when so much is involved. 
We should be up and doing.' He was for meeting organization with 
organization. He was for meeting these philanthropic knaves peace- 
ably at the ballot-box, and out-voting them^ IFTveTannoratrthis it is 
an omen that the institution of slavery must fall in this and other South- 
ern States, but it would fall after much strife, civil war, and bloodshed. 
If abolitionism, under its present auspices, is established in Kansas, 
there will be constant strife and bloodshed between Kansas and Mis- 
souri. Negro stealing will be a principle and a vocation. It will be 
the policy of philanthropic knaves, until they force the slave-holder to 
abandon Missouri ; nor will it be long until it is done. You cannot 
watch your stables to prevent thieves from stealing your horses and 
mules ; neither can you watch your negro quarters to prevent your 
neighbors from seducing away and stealing your negroes. If Kansas 
is abolitionized, all men who love peace and quiet will leave us, and all 
emigration to Missouri from the slave States will cease. We will go 
either to the North or to the South. For himself he could gather 
together his goods, and depart as soon as the most active among us. 
He had neither wife nor child to impede his flight. In a hybrid state 
we cannot live ; we cannot be in a constant quarrel — in a constant state 
of suspicion of our own neighbors. This feeling is entertained by a 
large portion of mankind everywhere. Yet, he said, he was willing, 
notwithstanding his pacific views, to hang negro theives ; he would not 
punish those who merely entertained abstract opinions ; but negro 
thieves and persons who stirred up insubordination and insurrection 
among our slaves, he believed it right to punish, and they could not 
be punished too severely — he would not punish a man who believed 
that rape, murder, or larceny was abstractly right, yet he would punish 
the man who committed either. It was not sufficient for the South to 
talk, but to act ; to go peaceably and inhabit the Territory, and peace- 
ably to vote and settle the question according to the principles of the 
Douglas bill." 



POSITION OF PARTIES, 95 

Eli Thayer, in his " Kansas Crusade," gives his views of 
the issue on pages 31 and 32, as follows : 

" The present crisis was to decide whether freedom or slavery should 
rule our country for centuries to come. That slavery was a great na- 
tional curse ; that it practically ruined one-half of the nation and greatly 
impeded the progress of the other half. That it was a curse to the 
negro, but a much greater curse to the white man. It made the slave- 
holders petty tyrants, who had no correct idea of themselves or of anybody 
else. It made the poor whites of the South more abject and degraded 
than the slaves themselves. That it was an insurmountable obstacle in 
the way of the nation's progress and prosperity. That it must be over- 
come and extirpated. That the way to do this was to go to the prairies 
of Kansas and show the superiority of free-labor civilization ; to go with 
all our free-labor trophies : churches and schools, printing presses, 
steam-engines, and mills ; and in a peaceful contest convince every poor 
man from the South of the superiority of free labor. That it was much 
better to go and do something for free labor than to stay at home and 
talk of manacles and auction-blocks and blood-hounds, while deploring 
the never-ending aggressions of slavery. That in this contest the South 
had not one element of success. We had much greater numbers, and 
much greater wealth, greater readiness of organization, and better facili- 
ties of migration. That we should put a cordon of free States from 
Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, and stop the forming of slave States. 
After that we should colonize the northern border slave States and ex- 
terminate slavery. That our work was not to make women and children 
cry in anti-slavery conventions, by sentimental appeals, BUT TO GO 
AND PUT AN END TO SLAVERY." 

Amos A. Lawrence said, in his statement before the Mas- 
sachusetts Historical Society: 

"The enthusiasm increased; parties were formed all over the 
Northern States. The Emigrant Aid Company undertook to give char- 
acter and direction to the whole. This society was to be loyal to the 
Government under all circumstances ; it was to support the party of 
law and order, and it was to make Kansas a free State by bona Jide set- 
tlement if at all." 

G. W. Brown, in the first number of the Hera U of Free- 
dom, gives the position of the Free-State men as follows : 

" Our great object is to make Kansas a free State; and to that end 
we shall labor by encouraging emigration. It is 7tot our purpose to 
engage in a crusade against our Southern brethren, nor upon their insti- 



96 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

tutions, so long as confined within their legitimate sphere. Our field is 
Kansas, and he7-e we shall labor, and here shall erect anew the altar of 
LIBERTY. With the Declaration of American Independence in one 
hand and the Constitution of the Republic in the other, we engage in a 
defensive warfare for the Right. We firmly believe that victory will 
crown the efforts of the Sons of Freedom ; .but the struggle will be long 
and arduous. We may be stricken down at first, but not defeated." 

While General Atchison's speech was comparatively con- 
servative, not so the actions of his subordinates and the people 
of the border counties in Missouri. On the day of the elec- 
tion, and before, they invaded Kansas like an army of occu- 
pation for the purpose of voting, and voting only. They 
were residents of Missouri, and did not pretend to be bo7ia 
fide residents of Kansas, or intend to become such. This 
army was recruited and paid as mercenaries to trample down 
the rights of the people of Kansas and pollute their ballot- 
boxes. On the other hand, no Free-State men were recruited 
except to become bo7iafide settlers, and they received no pay 
whatever. 

The leading candidates for delegate at this election were 
Whitfield, Pro-slavery ; Fleniken, Democrat, and Wakefield, 
Free State. The character of the election can be seen from 
the testimony of H. Miles Moore, now one of the most re- 
spected citizens of Kansas. He testified before the Con- 
gressional committee as follows : 

" I came into the Territory to reside in September, 1855, from 
western Missouri, where I had resided for about five years, practising 
as an attorney at law. I had resided in St. Louis a year previous to 
that. I came over to Leavenworth City on the 29th of November, 
1854, to attend the election for delegate to Congress. Arrangements 
had been made throughout western Platte County, and western Missouri 
generally, as I have been informed, for the purpose of going over there 
and voting at that election. Messengers had been sent from one portion 
of western Missouri to another, to notify. Meetings had been held to 
make arrangements to come over here on that day to vote. For a day 
or two previous, large numbers had passed through Weston to the Ter- 
ritory, on horseback and in wagons, with their forage and provisions, 
from the counties lower down on the north side of the river — Clinton, 



PROOF OF INVASION. 97 

Platte, and Clay counties. I saw parties from each of these counties at 
the hotel ; among them, men whom I recognized. The companies raised 
about Weston and Platte County were generally sent to the back portions 
of the Territory. The lower counties sent men to the precincts near the 
border. I myself came over with a large party from Weston and Platte 
County to Leavenworth ; a large crowd was present then on the ground. 
The election was held at the Leavenworth hotel, kept by Keller & Kyle. 
There was a great crowd around the polls all day. There was a good 
deal of excitement, and some quarrelling and fighting. I remained there 
all day till nearly night. General Whitfield was the pro-slavery candi- 
date ; Judge Fleniken was the Free-State candidate. All our party from 
Weston voted for Whitfield. I believe I voted myself that day for 
General Whitfield, but I do not see my name on the poll-books. I 
should think there must have been from one hundred and fifty to two 
hundred Missourians who voted there that day. The other Missourians 
who came over said after they returned, that they went to the 14th and 
15th districts, and other districts farther back." 

The number of votes polled at this election was, for Whit- 
field, 2238; Wakefield, 248; Fleniken, 305 ; and scattering, 
22 ; a total of 2833. Of these votes it is estimated that 
1 1 14 were legal, and 1729 illegal. 

The majority of the committee thus reports : 

"Thus your committee finds that in this, the first election in the 
Territory, a very large majority of the votes were cast by citizens of the 
State of Missouri, in violation of the organic law of the Territory. Of 
the legal votes cast, General Whitfield received a plurality. The set- 
tlers took but little interest in the election, not one-half of them voting. 
This may be accounted for from the fact that the settlements were scat- 
tered over a great extent, that the term of the delegate to be elected 
was short, and that the question of free or slave institutions was not 
generally regarded by them as distinctly at issue. Under these circum- 
stances, a systematic invasion from an adjoining State, by which large 
numbers of illegal votes were cast in remote and sparse settlements, for 
the avowed purpose of extending slavery into the Territory, even 
though it did not change the result of the election, was a crime of great 
magnitude. Its immediate effect was further to excite the people of 
the Northern States, and to exasperate the actual settlers against their 
neighbors in Missouri." 

At this time every considerable settlement in the Territory, 
except Lawrence and vicinity, was pro-slavery, and an in- 



gS THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

vasion was wholly unnecessary, as Whitfield could have been 
elected without. Being unnecessary, it was an inexcusable 
blunder, as it served to expose the game the pro-slavery men 
proposed to play, and increased the agitation and determi- 
nation in the North. The conservatism, as well as the anti- 
slavery sentiment of the country, had received a serious shock 
in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and was in no 
mood for foul play in the game set by the slave interest. 
Had there been no invasion or illegal voting, all would have 
acquiesced in the election of Whitfield without a murmur. 
This is one of a series of blunders made by General Atchi- 
son's forces which was taken advantage of by Free-State 
men. The settlers contented themselves by making this pro- 
test to the governor : 

"To his Excellency, A. H. Reeder, Governor of Kattsas Ten-itory : 

" Believing that a large number of the citizens of the State of Mis- 
souri voted at the election of the 29th instant for delegate to Congress 
representing Kansas Territory, we respectfully petition your honor that 
the entire vote of the district receiving the votes of citizens of Missouri 
be set aside, or that the entire election be set aside." 

Signed by numerous citizens. 

Some of the pro-slavery editors and people professed to be 
greatly elated over the result of this election, and to regard 
it as a test of strength between the parties. The Kansas 
Herald, published at Leavenworth, had this to say : 

" There is not a single doubt that Kansas will be a slave State. Our 
recent election shows a majority in its favor. General Whitfield, the 
pro-slavery cancUdate, had out of twenty-eight hundred votes polled 
twenty-two hundred. And notwithstanding the Aid Societies have 
poured in hordes of her paupers for the purpose of abolitionizing Kan- 
sas, they either become initiated in our institutions, or leave as fast as 
they arrive. Now, if the South does her duty, and especially Missouri, 
the Northern hope of abolitionizing Kansas will be ?l phantom hope. 

" Where is Lawrence, the reservoir for the overflow of the Aid 
Societies? It is true she is still situated on the Kaw river, but is now 
one r'" the principal pro-slavery towns in Kansas." 



EFFECT OF INVASION. 



99 



Other papers were equally jubilant and earnest in their 
appeals to the South to take possession of the Territory at 
once with their slaves. On the other hand, a few Northern 
papers were despondent and predicted the defeat of the Free- 
State cause. Horace Greeley weakened, and said the chances 
that Kansas would be a slave State were as four to one, and 
he seemed to " hear the clanking chains of human bondage, 
and saw the hideous shambles for the sale of human flesh." 
However, the Missouri invasion was treated by most North- 
ern papers as an outrage to be denounced and its repetition 
resisted to the bitter end. Whatever the effect outside of 
Kansas, the bona fide citizens were unconcerned. All parties 
knew that it was no test of strength and could have but little 
weight in settling the momentous question pending. The 
Free-State men busied themselves with their work of cabin- 
building, and in preparing their claims for spring cultivation. 
They were men who had counted the cost and were not to 
be discouraged by claim conflicts, personal assaults, or inva- 
sions at elections. This election afforded good grounds for 
encouragement. The fact that the pro-slavery party deemed 
it necessary to import voters showed that it had no confi- 
dence in a majority of settlers of its own faith, and the inva- 
sion was conclusive evidence that law was to be disregarded 
whenever it was supposed to block the v/ay to success. The 
bullying and bluster from the first, and now this invasion, 
showed conclusively that the enemy, the Free-State men, 
were rated as inferiors and to be despised, trodden upon and 
crushed without ceremony. All these things were carefully 
noted by the Free-State men, and gave great hope of success 
in the final result. They would not have had it otherwise if 
they could, as, had the pro-slavery men treated all with 
civility and attended the elections under the forms of law, 
coming quietly into the Territory under pretense of being 
settlers, all elections could have been carried by them and 
no valid protest could have been made. They had every 
advantage ; their forces resided on the border, and as all were 



100 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

recent settlers, no proof could have been easily furnished 
against them. 

In the months of January and February, 1855, a census 
was ordered by the Governor, and an election was to be 
held March 30th for a territorial Legislature. This election 
was of the greatest moment, as, according to the organic act, 
the question of a free or slave State would most likely be 
settled by the first Legislature. The Free-State men, confi- 
dent of their majority of voters, relied upon the promises of 
the Governor that a fair election should be held, and had no 
fears of the result. For the first time they held caucuses or 
conventions to agree upon candidates to be supported. This 
was no easy matter, as an effort had been made from the 
first to divide Free-State men into two hostile camps. For- 
tunately or unfortunately, three newspapers were started at 
Lawrence in the early winter, and all professed to be in favor 
of a free State. However, as is generally the case, a war 
sprung up between them, and what one paper advocated 
another must oppose. One paper, edited by men from the 
West and South, was hostile to men from the East, and es- 
pecially made war upon everything and everybody connected 
with the Emigrant Aid Company. 

The editors of this paper affiliated with the black law men, 
associated on friendly terms with the invaders of the polls 
and printed their tickets. They denounced the other ed- 
itors, or one of them, as not sound on the slavery question, 
and he retahated in kind. On April 26, 1855, he submitted 
this proposition : 

" We propose that the pro-slavery journal of this city get a chapter 
of denunciations against the Emigrant Aid Company stereotyped, to be 
used on opportune occasions. It must be a matter of great inconven- 
ience to reset its type so often with the same ideas, and all abounding 
with much vindictiveness. ' The good trees in the orchard are always 
the most stoned.' It is for this the Janus-faced press has been so 
violent against certain men and measures in this city." 

This newspaper quarrel, while a question of the most vital 
importance was pending, disgusted all sincere Free-State 



EDITORIAL QUARRELS. lOI 

men, till some person wrote the following, which was pub- 
lished in the Herald of Freedom, February 17, 1855 : 

"ADVICE TO THE THREE EDITORS. 

" Lawrence, February 14, 1855. 
*' Editor of Herald of Freedom : 

"As a subscriber to all three of the Lawrence papers, as one of the 
earliest pioneers to Kansas, as a well-wisher, and I trust co-worker in 
the Free-State army, and as a matter-of-fact man, I am surprised and 
annoyed and heartily sick at the course being pursued by some of the 
city papers. Under the most silly and child-like pretexts attacks are 
made, defamation of character attempted, influence and usefulness sought 
to be circumscribed, and the ' rule or ruin ' principle endeavored to be 
carried into effect. * * * 

"In your private jealousies, your petty feuds, family jars, contempt- 
ible bickerings, insolent calumniation, and harsh epithets, we have little 
or no interest, and they only beget disgust. We seek information, we 
desire respectability in our papers, and wish not to be ashamed to trans- 
mit them to our friends at a distance. 

" While anxious inquiries are hourly being made about Kansas from 
abroad, her soil, her climate, her timber, her stone, her coal, water, 
commercial advantages, and the probable introduction of slavery therein, 
none are made as to the animosities, animadversion, or antipathy exist- 
ing between Messrs. Brown, Miller, and Elliot, and the Brothers Speer, 
severally editors and proprietors of the Herald of Freedom, Free State, 
and Tribune. Gentlemen and brethren, if you cannot see alike, each 
see for yourself. If some of you desire to be more radical than your 
more conservative brother, it is your privilege. A generous and ap- 
preciating public will award to you that merit you deserve, whether you 
take either extreme, or a middle course between two. W^ere I not re- 
echoing the feelings of four-fifths of all your subscribers, a delicacy 
would prevent the plainness of this article. You all profess to be bat- 
tling for the one common cause, ' Freedom for Kansas.' Do so honestly, 
peacefully, determinately, and successfully, and each in your own way. 
If wrong has been done you, seek redress elsewhere than through your 
own columns. If you have been insulted and must resent it, fight it 
out hand to hand, and not embroil your readers in the 'muss.' In the 
settling of your difficulties you must help yourselves. In making Kan- 
sas free, you will always have the help of 

"A Conservative." 

At length the conflicting elements were sufficiently harmo- 
nized to present but one ticket to be voted for, instead of 



I02 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

two, as at the election of delegate to Congress. While the 
Free-State elements were being conciliated and united, the 
pro-slavery men were earnestly at work. The border and 
territorial pro-slavery press sounded the alarm, beat their 
tom-toms and gongs, and rallied the faithful to the rescue. 
The Frontier News, of Westport, Missouri, as published in 
the Herald of Freedom of February 17, 1855, had the fol- 
lowing : 

"KANSAS— THE ELECTION CRISIS. 

" The election which is ultimately to decide the destiny of Kansas is 
at hand : the census has been ordered, and the returns will be made on 
the 9th instant. Let the day of election come when it may, 'tis the 
result of that day's work which finally determines the institutions of the 
Territory, and the future State. It is therefore into this battle, heart 
and soul, that our Southern friends must throw themselves. The 
triumphant election of our delegate, though of no political importance 
as far as the great cause is concerned, yet acted as a powerful prestige, 
both to ourselves and to our abolition foes. Greeley was disheartened, 
declared that there were four chances to one in favor of Kansas being 
a slave State ; and already heard 'the clanking chains of human bondage, 
and saw the hideous shambles for the sale of human flesh.' But this 
triumph was a mere skirmish, calculated to lull the energies of the South 
into a peaceful slumber. The real battle, the decisive conflict, has yet 
to be fought ; and think you, Southerners, if we lose it, that the South 
can ever again obtain a foothold in the Territory? Vain thought! The 
code of Lawrence, digested by Messrs. Robinson, Thayer and Com- 
pany, and enforced by abolition tyrants, will be the code of Kansas ; 
and the chivalric South must bow beneath the yoke. How galling, 
how degrading to a sense of your manhood! Are you men? Then 
gird up your loins, be up and doing ; remember, that which has been 
done once can be done again. 

" It is now time for the South to rally ; to wait no longer with folded 
arms for 'signs of the times,' but go to work boldly, fearlessly, and 
with a sustained buoyancy of spirit and fixedness of purpose to secure 
their great end. 

" Southerners, you will baptize in a pond, and tar and feather a 
poor devil who believes he is doing God service when he persuades a 
slave to escape, and yet you will look on supinely when the whole insti- 
tution is threatened with extermination — and stand by and see with 
composure a ' paradisiacal garden' marked and dedicated as an asylum 
for decoyed, stolen, and runaway slaves. Big-hearted but feeble- 



ELECTION OF LEGISLATURE. IO3 

lianded, you would look on, shedding tears of impotence and self-con- 
tempt. 

" Freemen of the South, pioneers of the West, ' these are the times 
that try men's souls.' This is the twelfth hour of the night — birds of 
darkness are on the wing — the day will soon dawn — the battle will soon 
commence. Arouse and fight a good fight! Let the eagle of victory 
perch upon your banners. Steady, men! Forward!" 

The Leavenworth Herald said : 

" Remember that free-soilers and abolitionists have combined under 
the name of Free State, and boldly proclaim their hostility to the Douglas 
bill, and their defense of the Aid Societies! Such, ye Old Guard of 
the West, is the progress of the lying and dastardly crew you have to 
contend against. Saith the common law : When any number of persons 
band themselves together for a common object detrimental to the inter- 
est of any body, it is conspiracy! We say boldly that by law, all per- 
sons having connection with the Aid Societies are conspirators, and 
subject to indictment and conviction as such. They are criminals, and 
beside openly deny the powers of the Constitution of the United States, 
and consequently by their own acts have thrown themselves out of the 
protection of law." 

String-fellow, in a speech at St. Joseph, is reported as 
saying : 

"I tell you to mark every scoundrel among you that is the least 
tainted with free-soilism or abolitionism, and exterminate him. Neither 
give nor take quarter from the d — d rascals. I propose to mark them 
in this house, and on the present occasion, so you may crush them out. 
To those who have qualms of conscience as to violating laws, State or 
national, the time has come when such impositions must be disregarded, 
as your rights and property are in danger ; and I advise you, one and 
all, to enter every election district in Kansas, in defiance of Reeder 
and his vile myrmidons, and vote at the point of the bowie-knife and 
revolver. Neither give nor take quarter, as our cause demands it. It 
is enough that the slave-holding interest wills it, from which there is 
no appeal. What right has Governor Reeder to rule Missourians in 
Kansas? His proclamation and prescribed oath must be repudiated. 
It is your interest to do so. Mind that slavery is established where it 
is not prohibited." 

At length came election day, the 30th of March, and with 
it an invading horde from Missouri. They came with great 



104 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

ostentation, with arms of every description, including can- 
non. They were detailed to every district in sufficient 
numbers to secure every member of the Legislature should 
their votes be counted. They paid little attention to for- 
mality, and less to legality. So open, unblushing, and over- 
whelming was the demonstration, that it defeated itself. It 
required no search for testimony to prove its illegality in a 
contest, as the invaders brought the proof with them and 
proclaimed it to all the world. This was very satisfactory to 
the Free-State men, and most of them looked on without 
effort to prevent the illegal voting, except in a formal way 
by entering protest before the judges of election. The affair 
was thus described in the Herald of Freedom of the next 
day: 

" Of the disgraceful proceedings in this place on Friday last, by 
which the ballot-box was converted into an engine of oppression, we 
have hardly patience to write. To see hundreds of hired inercenaries 
on horseback, on foot, and in wagons and carriages, coming into Kan- 
sas in a body from an adjoining State, and expressing a determination 
to return so soon as they shall have polluted the freeman's safeguard 
with their touch, and to see that purpose fulfilled without any action 
whatever showing an intention to remain here for a single hour after 
they shall have cast a ballot is, to say the least, enough to make a Re- 
publican ashamed of his national connections ; and were he not strongly 
M'edded to the Federal Constitution, in a moment of vexation he might 
be led to exclaim that he desired ' no union with such base mercena- 
ries.' " 

The majority report of the Congressional Committee is 
based upon the testimony of both parties, and is a revelation 
new to republican government. A few extracts only are 
given. It says : 

" By an organized movement, which extended from Andrew County 
in the north, to Jasper County in the south, and as far eastward as 
Boone and Cole counties, Missouri, companies of men were arranged 
in irregular parties, and sent into every council district in the Territory 
and into every representative district but one. The members were so 
distributed as to control the election in each district. They went to 
vote, and with the avowed design to make Kansas a slave State. They 



COMMITTEE'S REPORT. I05 

were generally armed and equipped, carried with them their own provi- 
sions and tents, and so marched into the Territory. The details of this 
invasion form the mass of the testimony taken by your committee, and 
are so voluminous that we can here state but the leading facts elicited. 

" First District. — Lawrence. 

" The company of persons who marched into this district was col- 
lected in Ray, Howard, Carroll, Boone, Lafayette, Randolph, Macon, 
Clay, Jackson, Saline, and Cass counties, in the State of Missouri. 
Their expenses were paid; those who could not come contributing 
provisions, wagons, etc. Provisions were deposited for those who were 
expected to come to Lawrence in the house of William Lykins, and 
were distributed among the Missourians after they arrived there. The 
evening before, and the morning of the day of election, about one 
thousand men from the above counties arrived at Lawrence, and camped 
in a ravine a short distance from town, near the place of voting. They 
came in wagons (of which there were over one hundred) and on horse- 
back, under the command of Colonel Samuel Young, of Boone County, 
Missouri, and Claiborne F. Jackson, of Missouri. They were armed 
with guns, rifles, pistols, and bowie-knives ; and had tents, music, and 
flags with them. They brought with them two pieces of artillery, loaded 
with musket-balls. On their way to Lawrence some of them met Mr. 
N. B. Blanton, who had been appointed one of the judges of election 
by Governor Reeder, and after learning from him that he considered it 
his duty to demand an oath from them as to their place of residence, 
first attempted to bribe him, and then threatened him with hanging, in 
order to induce him to dispense with that oath. In consequence of these 
threats he did not appear at the polls the next morning to act as judge. 

" The evening before the election, while in camp, the Missourians 
were called together at the tent of Captain Claiborne F. Jackson, and 
speeches were made to them by Colonel Young and others, calling for 
volunteers to go to other districts where there were not Missourians 
enough to control the election, as there were more at Lawrence than 
were needed there. Many volunteered to go, and on the morning of 
the election several companies, from one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
dred each, went oflf to Tecumseh, Hickory Point, Bloomington, and 
other places. On the morning of the election the Missourians came 
over to the place of voting from their camp, in bodies of one hundred 
at a time. Mr. Blanton not appearing, another judge was appointed in 
his place, Colonel Young claiming that, as the people of the Territory 
had two judges, it was nothing more than right that the Missourians 
should have the other one to look after their interests ; and Robert A. 
Cummins was elected in Blanton's stead, because he considered that 
every man had a right to vote if he had been in the Territory but an 
hour. 



I06 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

"The Missourians brought their tickets with them; but not having 
enough, they had three hundred more printed in Lawrence on the even- 
ing before and on the day of election. They had white ribbons in their 
button-holes to distinguish them from the settlers. 

" When the voting commenced, the question of the legality of the 
vote of a Mr. Page was raised. Before it was decided, Colonel Samuel 
Young stepped up to the window where the votes were received, and 
said he would settle the matter. The vote of Mr. Page was withdrawn, 
and Colonel Young offered to vote. He refused to take the oath pre- 
scribed by the Governor, but swore he was a resident of the Territory ; 
upon which his vote was received. He told Mr. Abbott, one of the 
judges, when asked if he intended to make Kansas his future home, 
that it was none of his business ; that if he were a resident then he 
should ask no more. After his vote was received Colonel Young got 
up on the window-sill, and announced to the crowd that he had been 
permitted to vote, and they could all come up and vote. He told the 
judges that there was no use in swearing the others, as they would all 
swear as he had done. After the other judges had concluded to receive 
Colonel Young's vote, Mr. Abbott resigned as judge of election, and 
Mr. Benjamin was elected in his place. 

" The polls were so much crowded till late in the evening that for a 
time, when the men had voted, they were obliged to get out by being 
hoisted up on the roof of the building where the election was being held, 
and passing out over the house. Afterwards, a passage-way through the 
crowd was made by two lines of men being formed, through which the 
voters could get up to the polls. Colonel Young asked that the old men 
be allowed to go up first and vote, as they were tired with the travel- 
ing, and wanted to get back to camp. The Missourians sometimes 
came up to the polls in procession, two by two, and voted. During 
the day the Missourians drove off the ground some of the citizens — Mr. 
Stearns, Mr. Bond, and Mr. Willis. They threatened to shoot Mr. 
Bond, and a crowd rushed after him, threatening him ; and as he ran 
after them some shots were fired at him as he jumped off the bank of 
the river and made his escape. The citizens of the town went over in 
a body late in the afternoon, when the polls had become comparatively 
clear, and voted. 

" Before the voting had commenced, the Missourians said if the 
judges appointed by the Governor did not receive their votes they would 
choose other judges. Some of them voted several times, changing 
their hats or coats and coming up to the window again. They said they 
intended to vote first, and after they had got through the others could 
vote. Some of them claimed a right to vote under the organic act, 
from the fact that their mere presence in the Territory constituted them 
residents, though they were from Missouri and had homes in Missouri. 



REPORT CONTINUED. IO7 

Others said they had a right to vote because Kansas belonged to Mis- 
souri, and people from the East had no right to settle in the Territory 
and vote there. They said they came to the Territory to elect a Legis- 
lature to suit themselves, as the people of the Territory and persons 
from the East and the North wanted to elect a Legislature that would 
not suit them. They said they had a right to make Kansas a slave 
State, because the people of the North had sent persons out to make it 
a free State. Some claimed that they had heard that the Emigrant Aid 
Society had sent men out to be at the election, and they came to offset 
their votes ; but the most of them made no such claim. Colonel Young 
said he wanted the citizens to vote, in order to give the election some 
show of fairness. The Missourians said there would be no difficulty if 
the citizens did not interfere with their voting ; but they were deter- 
mined to vote peaceably, if they could, but vote any how. They said 
each one of them was prepared for eight rounds without loading, and 
would go to the ninth round with the butcher-knife. Some of them 
said that by voting in the Territory they would deprive themselves of 
the right to vote in Missouri for twelve months afterwards. The Mis- 
sourians began to leave the afternoon of the day of election, though 
some did not go home until the next morning. In many cases, when 
a wagon-load voted they immediately started for home. On their way 
home they said if Governor Reeder did not sanction the election they 
would hang him. 

" The citizens of the town of Lawrence, as a general thing, were 
not armed on the day of election, though some had revolvers, but not 
exposed as were the arms of the Missourians. They kept a guard 
about the town the night after the election, in consequence of the threats 
of the Missourians, in order to protect it. The pro-slavery men of the 
district attended the nominating conventions of the Free-State men, and 
voted for and secured the nominations of men they considered the most 
obnoxious to the Free-State party, in order to cause dissension in that 
party. Quite a number of settlers came into the district before the day 
of election, and after the census was taken. According to the census 
returns, there were then in the district 369 legal voters. Of those 
whose names are on the census returns, 117 are to be found on the 
poll-books of the 30th of March, 1855. Messrs. Ladd, Babcock, and 
Pratt testify to fifty-five names on the poll-books of persons they knew 
to have settled in the district after the census was taken, and before 
election. A number of persons came into the Territory in March be- 
fore the election, from the Northern and Eastern States, intending to 
settle, who were in Lawrence on the day of election. At that time 
many of them had selected no claims, and had no fixed place of resi- 
dence. Such were not entitled to vote. Many of them became dissatis- 
fied with the country. Others were disappointed at its political condi- 



Io8 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

tion, and in the price and demand for labor, and returned. Whether 
any such voted at the election is not clearly shown ; but from the proof, 
it is probable that in the latter part of the day, after the great body of 
Missourians had voted, some did go to the polls. The number was not 
over fifty. These voted the Free- State ticket. The whole number of 
names appearing upon the poll-lists is 1034. After full examination, 
we are satisfied that not over 232 of these were legal voters, and 802 
were non-residents and illegal voters. This district is strongly in favor 
of making Kansas a free State, and there is no doubt that the Free- 
State candidates for the Legislature would have been elected by large 
majorities if none but the actual settlers had voted. At the preceding 
election, in November, 1854, where none but legal votes were polled. 
General Whitfield, who received the full strength of the pro-slavery 
party, got but forty-six votes." 

Here was a pretended election in open defiance of the 
organic act, the Constitution and all law, and what could or 
would be done about it? The Free-State men demanded 
that the whole farce should be ignored and a day set for 
another election. It was true, a provision had been made 
by the Governor for contests, in detail, but under the circum- 
stances it was impracticable and unnecessary. The Governor 
resided at the Shawnee Mission, near the border of Missouri, 
and might have had ocular demonstration of the invasion if 
he had kept his eyes open. The bona fide settlers had a right 
to believe, from his previous pledges, that such an election 
would be ignored. In reply to a letter in the fall previous 
from citizens of Leavenworth, he used Avords of no ambigu- 
ous interpretation. In this reply, dated November 21, 1854, 
he said : 

' ' The pledges of that law must be redeemed ; and it were a poor and 
pitiless boon to have escaped from the domination of Congress, if we 
are only to pass under the hands of another set of self-constituted 
rulers, foreign to our soil, and sharing none of our burdens, no matter 
what may be their virtues or their worth as men and citizens at home. 
It may be very desirable for gentlemen to live among the comforts of 
the States, with all the accumulated conveniences and luxuries of an old 
home, and make an occasional expedition into our Territory to arrange 
our affairs — instruct our people and public officers, and control our 
government ; but it does not suit us, and I much mistake the people of 



REEDER'S REPLY. IO9 

this Territory if they submit to it. One thing I am certain of, that 
having sworn to perform the duties of the office of Governor with fidel- 
ity, I shall denounce and resist it in friend or foe, and without regard 
to the locality, the party, the faction, or the ism from which it comes. 

" Thus much the citizens of Kansas have a right to demand at my 
hands, and to fail in it would be the baldest dereliction of official duty. 
We believe that we are competent to govern ourselves ; and as we miist 
bear the consequences of our own errors, and reap the fruit of our own 
decisions, we must decline any gratuitous help in making them. 

" We shall always be glad to see our neighbors across the river as 
friends and visitors among us, and will endeavor to treat them with 
kindness and hospitality. We shall be still more pleased if they will 
abandon their present homes and dot our beautiful country with their 
residences to contribute to our wealth and progress ; but until they do 
the latter, we must respectfully, but determinedly, decline to allow them 
any participation in regulating our affairs. 

" When that is to be done, we insist that they shall stand aside and 
permit us to do the work ourselves. 

" This, gentlemen, with due respect for you personally, is the only 
reply I shall give to the suggestions in behalf of your meeting relative 
to the time and manner of taking our census and holding our election. 
' ' Your obedient servant, 

" A. H. Reeder. 

" To F. Gwinner, D. A. N. Grover, C. Miller, Wm. F. Dyer, and 
Alfred Jones, Esqrs., Conunitttw'" 

Here was language worthy of a Jackson, and the people 
of the Territory supposed that a Jackson was behind it. 
When, therefore, Mr. Pomeroy sent word to Robinson that 
the Governor would like to have some friends near when he 
should declare the result of the election, a dozen men from 
Lawrence went immediately to his headquarters, ready to 
die with him if necessary while in the discharge of his official 
duty. 

But what was their disappointment and chagrin when, 
after guarding him for about two days, he decided to issue 
certificates of election to a large majority of persons chosen 
by the invaders. Charity would plead ignorance as his ex- 
cuse, but even that plea cannot be entertained, for out of his 
own mouth is he condemned. In a speech at Easton, on 



no THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the 30th of April, he did not plead lack of information. The 
Boston Atlas thus comments on the speech and invasion, as 
published in the Herald of Freedom of May 26, 1855 : 

"THE KANSAS OUTRAGES. 

" In the address of Governor Reeder at Easton, on the 30th of April, 
is the fullest official confirmation of the lawless violence with which the 
legal rights of the free citizens of this Territory have been trampled in 
the dust. Here we have a witness of the most unimpeachable veracity 
— such an one as even the Boston Post or the Concord Patriot must 
admit to be authority of the very highest and most indisputable char- 
acter. An Administration Democrat of the straightest sect, appointed 
by the President to the post of Governor of this Territory — a believer, 
even now, in that hollow mockery miscalled ' popular sovereignty,' and 
an advocate of this principle in the Nebraska bill. Against such a wit- 
ness what whisper of doubt can these journals urge? None whatever. 
They cannot but receive his testimony. And what is that testimony? 
Is it that these outrages have been provoked by the eagerness of the 
advocates of free territory, and therefore to some extent excusable, as 
the Post would have its readers infer? Does he cast, even by imputa- 
tion, the smallest blame upon the outraged citizens at Kansas? No! 
He is open, explicit, dignified, and manly. He plainly and boldly puts 
the whole wrong just where it belongs. He tells the citizens of Easton 
that the people of the border counties of North Missouri have filled him 
with amazement ' by their reckless disregard of all laws, compacts, and 
constitutions,' that ' the Territory of Kansas has been invaded by an 
organized army, armed to the teeth, who took possession of her ballot- 
boxes and made a Legislature to suit themselves ! ' 

" He testifies to the already established fact that on that occasion 
' Kansas was subdued, subjugated, and conquered by armed men from 
Missouri.' He told his hearers that the solemn duty devolved upon 
the North ' to vindicate and sustain the rights of her sons who had 
settled in Kansas on the faith of solemn contracts.' He also declared 
' that the accounts of the fierce outrage and wild violence perpetrated at 
the election, and published in the Northern papers, were in nowise 
exaggerated.' He concluded by saying that Kansas was now a con- 
quered country — conquered by force of arms, but that the citizens were 
resolved never to yield their rights, and relied upon the North to aid 
them by demonstrations of public sentiment, and all other legal means, 
until they shall be fully and triumphantly vindicated." 

Here Governor Reeder is reported as saying that the 
" citizens were resolved never to yield their rights," and most 



THE CRISIS. Ill 

fortunate would it be for his memory if it could be truth- 
fully said that he had not yielded them in their stead. But 
the practical question was what could be done for a free 
State in future '? The Legislature, by the organic act, had 
power to settle this question by special and explicit authority. 
This body could enact a slave code, provide for all future 
elections to be controlled by its own appointees, including 
one for a constitutional convention, as in fact it proceeded 
to do. No further invasion would be needed, as "returning 
boards " would answer every purpose. It was evident that, 
should this election be acquiesced in with its results, the 
question at issue was finally disposed of. Should all hope 
be abandoned, and if not, what policy should be adopted 
and what action taken ? If a stand was ever to be made for 
a free State, should it be at the beginning or at the end of 
the programme of the Slave-State party ? If at the begin- 
ning, the battle must be fought in Kansas ; if at the end, it 
must be in Congress. But as Congress had uniformly failed 
to accomplish anything for freedom for a generation, hope 
in that direction was vain. Had it not just broken down 
the barrier of the Missouri Compromise and told the people 
of the world, including the State of Missouri, that it would 
admit Kansas and Nebraska to the Union, with or without 
slavery, as their constitutions might provide ? Evidently, if 
this battle was to be fought in Congress, the Free-State 
settlers had made a mistake in coming to Kansas, and had 
better go back East if they did not want to live in a slave 
State. But if the conflict was to be settled in Kansas, what 
steps were to be taken ? The first was to be repudiation of 
the fraud. Should this be attempted, a case must be made 
out satisfactory to the civilized world, or the repudiators 
would be repudiated and fail. As has already appeared, this 
conflict involved the entire nation. The pro-slavery party 
were dependent upon their friends in the South for sympathy, 
material aid, and recruits, as was the Free-State party upon 
the North. Fortunately this invasion, as proclaimed by the 



112 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

pro-slavery press, both before and after the outrage, saved 
all trouble of procuring evidence or presentation of the case 
to the jury. Quotations of utterances before the so-called 
election have been already given, which show the intent, 
and a few are quoted that followed as a plea of guilty to 
the actual commission of the crime. 

The following, from the St. Louis, Mo,, Republican, of 
31st March, the day after the election, tells how the irrup- 
tionists rejoiced over their mob triumph. It is a dispatch 
from Independence to the Eastern press : 

" Several hundred returning emigrants from Kansas have just 
entered our city. They were preceded by the Westport and Independ- 
ence brass bands. They came in at the west side of the pubHc square 
and proceeded entirely around it, the bands cheering us with fine music, 
and the emigrants with good news. Immediately following the band 
were about two hundred horsemen, in regular order ; following these 
were one hundred and fifty wagons, carriages, etc. They gave repeated 
cheers for Kansas and Missouri. They report that not an anti-slavery 
man will be in the Legislature of Kansas. We have made a clean 
sweep." 

The following was issued in the shape of an extra from 
the Richfield, Mo., Enterprise office, of date April 2, 1885, 
and was headed in large capitals in display hues : 

"O! K! on the Goose Question, All Hail! Pro-slavery Party 
Victorious ! ! The Smoke of the Battle is Over. 

" Friday, the 30th ult., was a proud and glorious day — one long to 
be remembered ; the triumph of the pro-slavery party is overwhelming 
and complete. 

" Come on, Southern men ; bring your slaves and fill up the Territory. 
Kansas is saved! Abolition is rebuked, her fortress stormed, her flag 
is dragging in the dust! The tri-colored platform has fallen with a 
crash ; the rotten timbers of its structure were not sufficient to sustain 
the small fragments of the party. 

" Kansas has proved herself to be S. Q. G. * * * 

' ' From the best information we have received, the pro-slavery party 
have carried their tickets in every district by a vote so decisive that 
the free-soil party will return to their masters, Thayer and Company. 

" The election passed off quietly, without the slightest disturbance. 
There were on the ground from 1200 to 1500 persons. No man can 



INVASION CONFESSED. II3 

say that he was crowded from the polls. Our opponents are chopfallen ; 
they look most dolefully, they talk most hopelessly, and feel, no doubt, 
awfully bad." 

The Independence, Mo., Messenger, took up the same 
strain : 

"KANSAS ELECTION. 

" On the 30th ult., the second political battle between slavery and 
abolitionism was fought, and abolitionism driven to the bush. The 
victory of the pro-slavery party was complete, and it is to be hoped that 
the question is now settled forever in that Territory. The fanatical 
propagandists of the North have only received a lesson in the Southern 
political alphabet ; and it may be well for them if they do not push their 
inquiries any further. Yankee inquisitiveness is proverbial, but we 
opine he has enough Southern and Western learning to do him for a 
time. The abolition vote in the Territory was extremely meagre, and 
we do not suppose they will have a single member in either branch of 
the Legislature. What comes now of the Northern boast that they 
were going to abolitionize Kansas, and make it a free State? They 
may yet do it, but their prospect is a little gloomy at present." 

After this pretended election the pro-slavery papers pro- 
fessed great confidence in the final result. The Kansas 
Ile?-ald, published at Leavenworth, demonstrated the folly 
of further Free-State efforts as follows : 

"KANSAS SLAVE STx\TE. 

" The brilliant and glorious triumph achieved by the noble and 
unaided efforts of the gallant and chivalrous sons of the South over the 
combined forces of the abolitionists, free-soilers and Emigrant Aid 
societies in our late territorial election, furnishes a suitable occasion to 
invite immigration from the South to our fair and fertile Territory. It 
is well known that the secinhig uncertainty of Kansas becoming a slave 
State, and the stupendous efforts of the so-called Emigrant Aid societies 
to abolitionize our Territory by the importation of hordes of paupers, 
hirelings, and convicts have served in a great measure to discourage 
and impede emigration from the South. We have been assured time 
and again, nor do we doubt, that there are thousands of families in 
many of the old Southern States who have been contemplating for 
months past a removal to Kansas, but have been deterred from doing 
so through fear of slavery not becoming one of her institutions. 

" This obstruction is now obliterated, for the infernal machinations 
of the Emigrant Aid societies have been defeated. Abolitionism has 
8 



114 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

been rebuked and discomfited. Free-soilism has been crippled and 
overthrown. The Free White State Party has been annihilated, and 
Kansas has declared loudly and decisively in favor of slavery. That 
Kansas is to become a slave State will admit of no doubt. The ques- 
tion has been decided. Her fate is sealed, and what has long since been 
the hope of the pro-slavery party will soon be history. 

" Everybody must admit that the popular vote at our late election is 
the most infallible exponent of the squatters' views in regard to the 
future introduction of slavery into Kansas. If this be so, we ask, does 
the vox populi oppose or favor the introduction of slavery? We pause 
for a reply. 

" But let us for a moment recapitulate upon the returns of the late 
election, which speak for themselves. By reference to our issue, which 
contains the official returns of the election, we learn that the total num- 
ber of votes polled in the Territory is no less than 5961, out of which 
4893 were cast for the pro-slavery party, in favor of making Kansas a 
slave State, against 1068 for the free-soil party, in favor of making 
Kansas a free State. But why this great disparity, of what is it indica- 
tive? It shows conclusively that seven-eighths of our population are in 
favor of making Kansas a slave State." 

The Free-State men had abundant evidence that the fraud 
was understood throughout the land both by friends and 
opponents. The New York Tribune, as quoted by the Free 
State of May 14, 1855, said: 

" After such a gigantic and unmistakable outrage upon the rights of 
the real inhabitants of Kansas, we cannot conceive how Governor 
Reeder could have granted any certificates of election. It would 
seem that in doing so he must have yielded to intimidation. * * * 
It seems that the Governor did grant a number of these certificates, and 
then left for W^ashington. We shall be glad if some of our correspond- 
ents there can throw any light on Governor Reeder's mission thither. 
That no lives were taken by these brigands is very evident, because they 
were in every case so powerful in number as to render opposition use- 
less. 

" It is abundantly demonstrated, from what we have pul)lished on the 
Kansas election, that a more stupendous fraud was never perpetrated 
since the invention of the ballot-box. The crew who will assemble 
under the title of the Kansas Territorial Legislature, by virtue of this 
outrage, will be a body of men to whose acts no more respect will be due, 
and should be no more entitled to the weight of authority, than a Legis- 
lature chosen by a tribe of wandering Arabs, who should pitch their 
tents and extemporize an election on the prairies of that Territory." 



PUBLIC SENTIMENT. II5 

The New Haven Palladitun said : 

" The recent outrages in Kansas by the border slave-holders of Mis- 
souri afford the free people of the North a foretaste of what they must 
all come to, in due ti/ne, if they permit this heartless despotism to make 
any further progress in this country. What is this Union worth with 
the preponderance of such influences within its limits? Who would 
not cry for dissolution more earnestly than did our fathers for a separa- 
tion from the British Crown, if this overshadowing despotism is to 
encircle us with its brutalizing influences ; and its outrageous defiance 
of even the forms of law are to be continued? The last election in 
Kansas was more outrageously conducted than the first. Armed slave- 
holders from Missouri took entire possession of the polls, and votes 
were put into the boxes without any reference to the right, or even to 
a show of decency. All that we cherish in our Republican system as 
essential to domestic order and the safety of life and property was 
rudely trampled under foot. We would have the admission of that 
State to this Union resisted, though it costs rivers of blood and a hun- 
dred millions of treasure. We trust that when this crisis comes it will 
appear that there is a Noi'thy 

Again the New York Tribune says : 

" We are not prepared either to say to what these proceedings are 
likely to lead. They seem, however, pregnant with the seeds of great 
good or evil. They sound in our ears like the distant roar of the com- 
ing tempest. Events of startling character and magnitude may stand 
in fearful proximity behind that dim and shadowy veil which divides the 
present from the future. There is Kansas. Her territory is free soil. 
It was never stained by the tread of a slave. Her plains never echoed 
to the lash of the slave-driver's whip, nor the groans of the enchained 
bondmen. The millions of the free States have thundered out the 
declaration that they never shall. On one side, the slave power has 
risen in its might and declared its purpose to subjugate that Territory, 
and plant slavery there in defiance of the North, in defiance of the 
pleadings of humanity, in defiance of the spirit of freedom. It has 
armed its myrmidons, marshalled and sent them forth to execute its 
purposes. The symbols of their errand were defiantly promenaded 
through the Territory in the late scandalous inroad, in the shape of 
negro fiddlers and negro attendants. As the conquerors of old carried 
their captives in their train, so did our modern brigands open their 
career by a similar demonstration. The appeal is now made to arms. 
By the sword they declare shall Kansas be gained to slavery. The 
vaunt is openly flung forth, and the challenge to all the world is, let 
him dispute us who dare. The first step taken has been to put beneath 



Il6; THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

their heel the real residents and occupants of the soil. The next is to 
depose the Governor, and pronounce another in his place. A third is 
to declare war against all who dare oppose their plans. The army of 
slavery is thus encamped on the soil of Kansas, belligerent and fierce. 
It pretends to hold the country by the conqueror's title. 

" Such is the position of one side in the struggle for the possession 
of Kansas. On the other stands a little band of the sons of freedom, 
just now borne down by numbers, but resolute in purpose and ready to 
do their part in repelling the barbarian invaders. The question is 
whether they are to be seconded by the people of the North. Is there 
a genuine spirit of freedom in the country, ready to do something 
against the atrocious strides of the slave power to continental dominion ? 
Are there those who are willing to migrate to Kansas to aid in main- 
taining the freedom of Kansas at the cost of such perils as may arise? 
Are the Northern people generally up to the demand of the civilization 
and the humanity of the times? Do they mean Kansas shall be free? 
If they do, that is enough. The force that shall drive out hordes of 
land pirates who have made their descent upon Kansas will not be long 
in forming. Swayed and inspired by the sentiments of freedom, they 
will scatter its enemies like chaff. But we are not quite sure that the 
people of the free States are in earnest in the resolve to maintain the 
freedom of Kansas. We do not know whether the emigrants thither 
from the free States will prove themselves to accept the responsibilities 
of their position, and meet the issue raised by the slave-holders. If 
they do, the time is here for the North to show that her people are 
worthy of their sires. If it be otherwise, their degradation is unspeak- 
able and they are fit only to live as the slaves of slaves." 

The Worcester Sfy> said : 

" Every account from Kansas concerning the occurrences which took 
place there at the election on the 30th of March tends to establish the 
fact of the perpetration by the Missourians of one of the grossest out- 
rages that ever was committed upon American citizens. Alleged Aus- 
trian and Cuban outrages upon the persons and liberties of our country- 
men abroad dwindle down into utter insignificance in comparison with 
the brigandism which was perpetrated upon the people of Kansas by 
the ruffians of Missouri at the period named. Accustomed, as we have 
been, to the almost boundless insolence and unrestrained aggressions 
of the slave power, it still seems scarcely possible for us to believe that 
men bearing the names of 'American freemen ' could be guilty of such 
cowardly assaults upon their fellow-citizens ; such dastardly attacks 
upon the very principle of ' squatter sovereignty,' which they profess 
to cherish, and such unprovoked, unjustifiable assaults upon the freedom 



PUBLIC EXPRESSIONS. II7 

and independence of a Territory with which they have no shadow of 
right to interfere, as have been committed by Atchison and Stringfel- 
low, and the scoundrels with whom they have twice carried war into 
Kansas. 

"It is shown that an army of Missourians, armed with rifles, re- 
volvers, and knives, with a regular organized commissariat, and with 
cannon, invaded the Territory of Kansas on the 29th of March last ; 
and on the 30th, prevented, by military outrage, the people of that 
Territory from voting for a territorial Legislature, at the same time dic- 
tating who shall be members of that Legislature. 

" If Atchison and Stringfellow had organized their army of ruffians 
for the purpose of invading Mexico, the general Government would 
have seized those men and would have punished them severely for levy- 
ing war. Why not do so in this case? It is the bounden duty of the 
general Government to protect our Territories from invasion and their 
inhabitants from foreign aggression. Why do they not do it in this 
case of Kansas? The old answer comes to us with the same everlasting 
response — the invaders of Kansas went there to establish slavery, and 
slavery, which is now the supreme power at Washington, strikes the 
Government blind and dumb with moral paralysis. It dare not act 
against the power that made it. It dare not complain of the outrages 
which it originally invited, by ignoring the Missouri Compromise, and 
which it has since encouraged by its drivelling policy. 

" But this condition of things is not a permanent one. The next 
Congress will utterly condemn such proceedings. In the meantime let 
the freemen of the North and West pour into the Territory, and in a 
few months the freedom of Kansas will be established so that no ruffians 
will be able to browbeat and intimidate those who alone have the right 
to regulate its municipal affairs." 

The New York Evening Post said : 

"If there was any provocation either to force or fraud, it was simply 
a provocaton to retaliate by sending colonists friendly to the institution 
of slavery. The Territory was open to the inhabitants of slave States 
as well as free. All they had to do was to occupy it and frame its 
institutions after their own pattern, if they could. 

" The emigration from the free States, say these apologists for the 
dishonest proceedings of the Missourians, was a challenge and defiance. 
Let it be a challenge to a race and not to a fight. It was boldly and 
openly made. 'Let us see,' they said, 'who, in a fair contest of speed, 
will get into the country first.' The Missourians, instead of abiding 
by the challenge and giving their antagonists a fair field, take arms in 
their hands and drive them out of it. It is precisely as if two men 



Il8 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

should bet on a horse race, and one of them seeing the other likely to 
win, should snatch the stakes out of the hands of the holder and run 
off with them. This is an illustration which we suppose will be under- 
stood in Missouri." 

Some of the Southern papers did not seem as hopeful as 
the border editors. The Charleston News said : 
"UNMITIGATED CURSE. 

" There never was a completer or more disastrous miscarriage than 
the Nebraska bill. It has not only blasted every expectation that was 
originally formed of it, but it proved to its authors a positive and un- 
mitigated curse. Instead of strengthening the harmony of the country, 
it has given rise to the intensest resentment and discord. Instead of 
giving effect and confirmation to the compromise of 1850, it has blasted 
that compromise into nothingness. Instead of securing two additional 
slave States to the Union, it has secured two additional free States. 
And instead of putting an end to free-soil doctrine, it has given that 
doctrine a power and a respectability which it never possessed before, 
and which, we believe, it could never have attained through any other 
medium than that opened by the bill." 

The Louisville Journal, under the head of " The late 
Doings in Kansas and Missouri," said : 

"It is painful to speak of the occurrences in Kansas and upon its 
borders within the last few weeks, but they are too important in their 
nature, and are likely to be by far too important in their consequences 
to be passed by in silence. We have waited to see statements from all 
sides in order that we might be able to speak upon the subject without 
danger of being mistaken. We have no feeling that could prompt us 
to speak as a partisan. We wanted the Missouri Compromise to be let 
alone, but, as it has been repealed, we wish to see Kansas admitted at 
the proper time into the Union as a State, either with or without 
slavery, as her own qualified voters shall decide. 

" We have only slight means of judging whether a majority of the 
present population of Kansas Territory are for or against making it a 
slave State. But it certainly cannot be denied with a semblance of 
truth that the recent election, so called, of delegates to the territorial 
Legislature was the most open and scandalous mockery of an election 
ever heard of in the United States, the old Plaquemine election of 1844 
scarcely excepted. An official census of the inhabitants of the Territory 
was carefully taken only four weeks before the election, and from this 
it appears that, in some precincts alone, the votes polled at the election 



SOUTHERN PROTEST. 



119 



considerably surpassed the whole number of voters in the entire Terri- 
tory. The truth is, an army of Missourians, variously estimated at 
from three thousand to five thousand, armed with bowie-knives and 
pistlos and rifles, and even cannon, marched into Kansas on the day 
before election, distributed themselves wherever they were wanted, 
awed all opposition to silence, deposed and put up election judges to 
suit themselves, allowed the privilege of voting to whom they pleased, 
compelled by threats and the display of weapons the receiving of their 
own votes, offered personal violence to all who were obnoxious to 
them, carried everything before them, and, the next day, returned to 
Missouri under streaming banners, and to the music of fife and drum 
and trumpet. * * * 

"The determination of the Missourians living near the borders of 
Kansas to make that Territory a slave Territory and a slave State at all 
hazards, and by whatever means, is abundantly evident from the late 
proceedings of the residents of Platte County, Missouri. In that case 
all the principal men of the county, to the number of two hundred, 
assembled as a mob, destroyed a newspaper press simply because it 
would not recognize the right of Missourians to vote in Kansas, at- 
tempted to take the lives of the editors and proprietors, and solemnly 
pledged their word and honor that, if those gentlemen should dare to 
settle in any portion of Kansas, they, the people of Platte County, Mis- 
souri, would follow them into the Territory and put them to death! 
Thus this Missouri mob, a portion of the army of pistol and bowie- 
knife voters who had crossed into Kansas and borne down everybody 
and everything at the election, now boldly and audaciously announced 
to the world that they claimed and would exercise the prerogative of 
deciding who should and who should not settle in the Territory of Kan- 
sas ; that they would not permit the people of Kansas to decide this 
matter for themselves ; that they would cross the line and cut the 
throats of any who should presume to become inhabitants of the new 
Territory against their wishes. 

" If any man, whether editor or private citizen, chooses to brand us 
as free-soil in our propensities because we denounce the outrages of 
the Missourians upon the rights of the inhabitants of Kansas, and are 
in favor of permitting those inhabitants to fix their own institutions for 
themselves according to the provision of the Nebraska law and without 
obstruction or hindrance from any outside power, we have only to say 
that he is a calumniator. The late proceedings in Kansas and Missouri 
are infinitely more to be deplored by the South than by the North. We 
all know that a deep and terrible excitement was created throughout the 
North by the Missouri Compromise repeal, which gave to the people of 
Kansas the nominal power of deciding by their own votes whether they 
would have slavery or not, and we all know, too, that there has been, 



I20 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

from the date of the repeal, a mighty array of strength in the North, 
resolved on never permitting Kansas to come into the Union as a slave- 
holding State, no matter with what kind of a constitution she might 
apply. By a course of fairness and moderation this perverse and wrong 
resolve on the part of the North might possibly, and even probably, be 
overcome, but we ask how it can fail to be vastly and boundlessly 
strengthened and increased when the people of a slave-holding State, in 
utter disregard of the rights guaranteed to Kansas, avowedly control 
her elections by physical force, decide in mob meetings who shall and 
shall not be tolerated within its borders, adopt measures for forcing a 
slave constitution upon her, whether her settlers are willing or not, and 
brandish the murderous blade before the eyes of the world as the instru- 
ment by which they mean, in the event of resistance, to execute their 
designs." 



CHAPTER VI. 

REPUDIATION. MEANS OF DEFENSE. THE COUNTRY AGI- 
TATED. THE FIRST KANSAS CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTH 

OF JULY. 

Immediately after the decision of Governor Reeder, the 
resident agent of the Emigrant Aid Company came to the 
conclusion that there was but one hope for a free State, and 
that was to repudiate not only the election, but Governor 
Reeder's action in giving certificates to the invaders. He 
had seen what law-making could effect in the control 
of oppressors as against the oppressed in California, and 
knew very well what might be expected from this Legis- 
lature that had just been legalized by the Governor's act, 
so far as illegality and fraud could be legalized. The 
Legislature could pass laws, as did the Cahfornia Legis- 
lature regarding land titles, purposely to deprive one class 
of citizens of all legal protection. It was true, repudiation 
was a most desperate remedy, but the case was desperate. 
The fraudulent Legislature would be sustained by the Fed- 
eral Executive and territorial judiciary, backed by the ter- 
ritorial militia and Federal army. While the fraud was 
patent to all, had been published throughout the land and 
condemned by all Northern and many Southern men, it was 
no easy matter to draw the line and keep on the right side 
of it. While Northern papers would justify and uphold, 
repudiation of the bogus Legislature and its enactments, 
scarcely a man north of Mason and Dixon's line would 
justify the hfting of a finger against Federal authority. It 
was therefore necessary in this conflict to draw the line at 



122 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

that point. But how could this be done ? The laws would 
be adjudicated by Federal judges and executed by a Fed- 
eral governor and United States marshal. All justices of 
the peace, probate judges, sheriffs, and constables would be 
creatures of the usurpation. The Territory was without 
other law, except common and Federal law, so far as this 
was applicable to crimes, and the American people were 
law-abiding. What influence could keep the Free-State 
settlers from giving in their adherence, and thus making 
this usurpation a Government de facto, although not a Gov- 
ernment dc jure ? No new election of both houses of the 
Legislature would be held for two years. Would it be pos- 
sible to hold out that length of time without law, while 
branded as repudiators and traitors by the Federal Executive 
and one-half of the people of the country ? Had the Free- 
State settlers been high dignitaries, ex-members of Congress, 
or ex-officers of any kind, such a course would have been 
scouted as impracticable and Utopian ; but, fortunately, all 
the Free-State settlers at this time were actuated and gov- 
erned by a conviction of right and natural justice, and did 
not stop to count the cost. And, even if they had stopped 
to forecast the future, it would have been shrouded in thick 
darkness. There had been no precedents that could throw 
light upon the situation, except on a small scale in California, 
and they were obliged to make the venture in the dark, 
trusting to prudent and wise conduct to bring them through. 
Should this policy of repudiation be adopted, means of de- 
fense must be provided. Even without taking this step, and 
before the election, bullying, browbeating, and bluster had 
become intolerable. Four men with their pro-slavery allies 
had frightened the whole town company of Lawrence into 
giving up to them nearly one-half of the town site, to which 
they had no legal or equitable right. The result of the 
election gave these blusterers and bullies new courage, and 
they were and would be more unendurable than ever. Ac- 
cordingly, on returning from the Mission where the final act 



SHARP'S RIFLES. I 23 

in the drama had been played by the Governor, George W, 
Deitzler was sent with a letter to Eli Thayer for one hun- 
dred Sharp's rifles. These rifles were needed in self-defense 
against ruffians, and not for offensive war against the Fed- 
eral Government, and were so used. General Deitzler, in 
his letter to the invitation committee of the Quarter Centen- 
nial Convention, at Lawrence, in September, 1879, gives this 
account of his mission : 

" San Francisco, September 8, 1879. 

"Judge J. S. Emery and others, Committee of Old Settlers, Law- 
rence, A'ansas : 

"Gentlemen: I regret exceedingly that it will be impossible for 
me to accept your kind invitation to attend the meeting of Old Settlers 
of Kansas, at Lawrence, on the 15th inst. 

" Time is making sad inroads upon our ranks. We are passing 
rapidly away. Soon the ' Old Guard ' will have none of their number 
left to call the roll. It is gratifying to observe that your State His- 
torical Society is collecting the materials for a full and correct history of 
the stirring events of 1855 and 1856, and no doubt justice will be done 
to the people who perilled their all in securing freedom to Kansas, as well 
as to those generous and patriotic men and women who inaugurated 
and sustained the aid societies which proved such valuable instrumen- 
talities in the furtherance of the cause. Among the latter stands the 
able and truly good man, Hon. Eli Thayer, whose letter of acceptance 
of your invitation, published in the Lawrence Jourizal, recalls an incident 
of 1855, to which I beg to refer briefly. Some six weeks after my 
arrival in the Territory, and only a few days after the territorial election 
of March 30th, at which time Kansas was invaded by an armed force 
from the Southern States, and the actual Free-State settlers were driven 
from the polls. Governor Charles Robinson, than whom no truer or 
braver man ever espoused the cause of free Kansas, requested me to 
visit Boston with a view of securing arms for our people, to which I 
assented. Preparations were quickly and quietly made, and no one 
knew the object of my mission except Governor Robinson and Hon. 
Joel Grover. At Worcester I presented my letter from Governor 
Robinson to Mr. Thayer, just as he was leaving Oread Home for the 
morning Boston train. Within an hour after our arrival in Boston, 
the executive committee of the Emigrant Aid Society held a meeting 
and delivered to me an order for one hundred Sharp's rifles, and I 
started at once for Hartford, arriving there on Saturday evening. The 
guns were packed on the following Sunday, and I started for home on 



124 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Monday morning. The boxes were marked ' Books.' I took the pre- 
caution to have the (cap) cones removed from the guns and carried 
them in my carpet sack, which sack would have been missing in the 
event of the capture of the guns by the enemy. On the Missouri River 
I met Hon. John and Joseph L. Speer, for the first time. They did 
not know me, but may remember the exciting incidents at Booneville 
and other points along the river. I arrived at Lawrence with the 
' Beecher Bibles ' several days before the special election, in April, 
called by Governor Reeder. But no guns were needed upon that 
occasion, as the rufifians ignored that election, and when the persons 
elected upon that day presented their credentials to the Legislature at 
Pawnee, they were kicked out without ceremony. 

" I have not referred to this transaction from any motives of personal 
vanity, but simply to revive a feeling of gratitude towards Mr. Thayer 
and his associates, for the kind and patriotic assistance rendered by 
them to the Free-State people from the beginning to the end of the 
great struggle which terminated, happily, in the overthrow of American 
slavery, and to show how promptly they gave attention to the business 
which took me to Boston. Those rifles did good service in the ' border 
war,' and their movements in the hands of the brave and fearless 
Stubbs would furnish incidents for a very interesting chapter in the 
history of the Old Settlers. It was, perhaps, the first shipment of 
arms for our side, and it incited a healthy feeling among the unarmed 
Free-State settlers, which permeated and energized them until even the 
Quakers were ready to fight. The temptation exists to say more while 
I am up, but I must forbear. I beg to be remembered by all, and 
trust the Old Settlers will have a jolly good time at this and at all 
future meetings. 

"Very respectfully, Geo. W, Deitzler." 

These were the first weapons procured for the defense of 
the settlers in their repudiation career, and were indispen- 
sable. As soon as their arrival was known a change in the 
atmosphere was perceptible, most agreeable to Free-State 
men and most chilling to the ardor of Slave-State men. So 
salutary was their effect in the town that settlers wanted to 
try them in the country, and the following letter was given 
to Hon. J. B. Abbott : 

" Lawrence, July 26, 1855. 

"Mr. Thayer — Dear Sir: The bearer, J. B. Abbott, is a resi- 
dent of this district, on the Wakarusa, about four miles from Lawrence. 
There is a military company formed in his neighborhood, and they are 



MORE ARMS. LAWRENCE. I 25 

anxious to procure arms. Mr. Abbott is a gentleman in whom you 
can place implicit confidence, and is true as steel to the cause of free- 
dom in Kansas. In my judgment, the rifles in Lawrence have had a 
very good effect, and I think the same kind of instruments in other 
places would do more to save Kansas than almost anything else. Any- 
thing you can do for Mr. Abbott will be gratefully appreciated by the 
people of Kansas. We are in the midst of a revolution, as you will 
see by the papers. How we shall come out of the furnace, God only 
knows. That we have got to enter it, some of us, there is no doubt; 
but we are ready to be offered. 

" In haste, very respectfully yours, for freedom for a world, 

" C. Robinson." 

(The above letter has the following endorsement : ) 

"Office of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, 
" No. 3 Winter Street, Boston, August 10, 1855. 
" Dr. Charles Robinson, within mentioned, is an agent of the Emi- 
grant Aid Company, and is worthy of implicit confidence. We cheer- 
fully recommend Mr. J. B. Abbott to the public. 

" C. H. Branscomb, Scartaiy pro tcmy 

Major Abbott also procured a mountain howitzer with 
ammunition, as well as Sharp's rifles. During the spring and 
summer several invoices of arms were received for different 
parts of the Territory, nearly all furnished through the assist- 
ance of persons connected with the Aid Company. The 
following letters will show the interest taken by Amos A. 
Lawrence, one of the most earnest and efiicient friends 
Kansas ever had : 

"Boston, August 11, 1855. 

"Dear Sir: Request Mr. Palmer to have one hundred Sharp's 
rifles packed in casks, like hardware, and to retain them subject to my 
order. Also to send the bill to me by mail. I will pay it either with 
my note, according to the terms agreed on between him and Dr. Webb, 
or in cash, less interest at seven per cent, per annum, 

" Yours truly, Amos A. Lawrence. 

" Air. J. B., Abbott, care of A. Rogers, Hartford, Conn:' 

" Boston, August 20, 1855. 
"My Dear Sir: This installment of carbines is far from being 
enough, and I hope the measures you are taking will be followed up 
until every organized company of trusty men in the Territory shall be 



126 THE KANSAS CONFLICT, 

supplied. Dr. Cabot will give me the names of any gentlemen here 
who subscribe money, and the amount, of which I shall keep a mem- 
orandum, and promise them that it shall be repaid either in cash, or in 
rifles, whenever it is settled that Kansas shall not be a province of 
Missouri. Therefore keep them in capital order, and above all, take 
good care they do not fall into the hands of the Missourians after you 
once get them into use. 

" You must dispose of these where they will do the most good, and 
for this purpose you should advise with Dr. Robinson and Mr. Pom- 
eroy. 

" Yours truly, Amos A. Lawrence. 

•M/r. James B. Abbott, care of A. Rogers, Hartford.'" 

" Boston, August 24, 1855, 
" My Dear Sir: The rifles ought to be on the way. Have you 
forwarded them? How much money have you received? The Topeka 
people will require half of these. 

" Yours truly, Amos A. Lawrence. 

''Mr. J. B. Abbott:' 

The howitzer was procured in New York through the 
agency of Horace Greeley, Olmstead, and others. It would 
seem that the statements of Deitzler and Abbott, with the 
letters of Lawrence, Olmstead, and others, on file at the 
rooms of the Historical Society, would be conclusive as to the 
date of furnishing arms to Kansas, and as to the instrumen- 
tality by which they were furnished, but at a reunion of 
abolitionists at Boston, in September, i8go, F. B. Sanborn 
said that " John Brown had carried for his sons' use a small 
stock of arms before the Sharp's rifles from Boston go there." 
On turning to "Appleton's Cyclopedia of Biography," page 
405, it appears that John Brown's sons, when they Avent 
to Kansas, in 1855, "were so little prepared for an armed 
struggle that they had among them only two small shot-guns 
and a revolver," while John Brown himself did not go to 
Kansas till October of that year. This, however, is of no 
importance, except to show how romance differs from state- 
ments in cyclopedias and documents in historical societies. 
In this speech of Mr. Sanborn he belittles the work of the aid 



SANBORN'S CLAIMS. 1 27 

companies, and, while he concedes there may have been 
good accompHshed in an indifferent manner by others, there 
were but two men indispensable and worthy to be named, 
and one of these was John Brown and the other James H, 
Lane. But, up to the 30th of March, at the election of a 
Legislature which was to decide the question of slavery or 
no slavery, neither of these indispensable men had put in an 
appearance, nor, in fact, did either appear till the pohcy of 
the Fi-ee-State men had been decided upon and arms had 
been ordered for putting it in force. According to a letter of 
John Brown, Jr., published in the Cleveland Leader, in the 
month of October, 1854, "five of the sons of John Brown, 
residents of the State of Ohio, made their arrangements to 
emigrate to Kansas." In the spring of 1855, three of them 
started from Illinois to drive through some cattle, while the 
two others went by rail, river, and land to a place eight 
miles west of Osawatomie. As he says, they had for the five 
brothers two squirrel guns and a revolver. Here, then, is 
the alacrity of the Brown sons, while the father did not ar- 
rive till October. How about Thayer and his Aid Com- 
pany, and the settlers not worthy of a name in this conflict ? 
Within one month of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 
three agents of that company. Colonel James Blood, C. H. 
Branscomb, and Charles Robinson, were en route for Kansas 
to arrange for its settlement. Six parties had emigrated from 
the extreme East in the summer and fall of 1854, and several 
in the spring of 1855. Several parties not connected directly 
with this company also emigrated, besides a large number in- 
dependently of all parties. Several Free-State newspapers had 
been published since the first of January, 185 5 — The Herald 
of Freedom, Tribune, and Free State — and several Free- 
State towns started, among them Lawrence, Topeka, Man- 
hattan, Wabaunsee, and Osawatomie. All this had been 
done before the Browns got fairly waked up to what was 
going on in the United States of America. Suppose Thayer, 
Sam Wood, Wakefield, G. W. Brown, the Speers, Miller and 



128 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Elliot, Holliday, Sam Walker Deitzler, Abbott, Goodnow, 
Eldridges, Savages, Duncans, Smiths, Tappan, Fuller, Clarke, 
and others without number, had been as sleepy as the Brown 
family, where would free Kansas have been '? Evidently the 
question would have been settled, and forever. There would 
have been no occasion for an invasion from Missouri and 
the South, as there would have been only pro-slavery settlers 
and voters in the Territory, and no persons would have ever 
afterwards migrated to Kansas unless they were willing to live 
in a slave state, which Kansas would have been without a 
struggle. Unquestionably the Free-State settlers who arrived 
in Kansas previous to the 30th of March, 1855, made the in- 
vasion necessary on the part of the Slave-State men, and the 
infamy and illegality of that invasion gave a fighting chance 
for success to the methods adopted by the Free-State party. 
How did Lane, the other indispensable, welcome these 
Sharp's rifles ? A letter from Lawrence to the Milwaukee 
Sent'mel, supposed to be by E. D. Ladd, dated May 23, 
1855, a short time after Lane's arrival in the Territory, gives 
this account of the reception of the rifles, just before the 
second election, called to fill vacancies in the Legislature : 

" Lawrenxe, Kansas, May 23d. 
" An intense excitement was produced in the minds of a few of our 
citizens — I need not say who — preceding the election, by the arrival 
on the Emma Harmon of five boxes of books, which, on being opened, 
proved to be, instead of books, one hundred of Sharp's rifles, capable 
of discharging 1000 shots per minute. Threats and imprecations were 
loud and long. ' If not sent back immediately they would be thrown 
into the Kansas ; ' ' there would be an armed force from Missouri here 
to take them ; ' ' it was the work of the Emigrant Aid Society, for the 
purpose of overawing and holding in subjection the Western men ; ' 
' it was opposed to the Constitution of the United States ; ' — Heaven 
save the Constitution if these men are its defenders! — ' if there were two 
or three days before election, they would give us occasion to use them.' 
Such were the feelings and expressions. Even Colonel Lane, the 
distinguished ex-Congressman of Indiana, who is now one of our citi- 
zens, advised their being sent back. No, gentlemen, they never go 
back, and if they go into the Kansas, we go with them, and we don't 
go alone." 



SECRET ORGANIZATION. 129 

But to return from this digression to the condition of the 
Territory in the summer and fall of 1855. Notwithstanding 
the wholesome influence of the Sharp's rifles, petty annoy- 
ances were continued by the pro-slavery men whenever the 
advantage of an encounter was on their side. Two or more 
in company would pounce upon a Free-State man when un- 
armed and alone, and do more or less bodily harm. To put 
an end to this, a secret organization was effected of men 
pledged to stand by each other under all circumstances, and 
to see that these assailants were properly cared for. Also a 
California bully was engaged, and paid by the month to de- 
vote his time to the business in hand. This pohcy proved 
to be most successful. The name of this man was Dave 
Evans, and his only instructions were to act on the defensive 
with his fists and revolver, while with his tongue he might 
take the offensive according to the merits of each case. 
While from first to last it was the policy of the Free-State 
men to do no wrong, and commit no crime, self-defense was 
always in order. This the pro-slavery men could not under- 
stand. Because of the discreet conduct of Free-State men 
they were at first thought to be cowardly, but by degrees their 
opponents opened their eyes to the situation. The first man 
killed was in the fall of 1854, soon after the election of dele- 
gate to Congress. A pro-slavery man in an insulting man- 
ner assaulted a Free-State man, who shot him dead. A trial 
followed, but self-defense was pleaded successfully. After 
the second election another pro-slaveiy man was killed. 
Malcolm Clark, of Leavenworth, a pro-slavery man, assailed 
Cole McCrea, a Free-State man, with a piece of scanthng, 
when McCrea shot him dead. This caused great excitement 
for a time, and McCrea was held a prisoner at the Fort, but 
as the facts became known the excitement subsided, no in- 
dictment was found by the grand jury, and the prisoner went 
free. A few lessons of this nature were eye-openers to many 
who had despised the Free-State men as hirelings and pau- 
pers. One of the most efficient men in this game was S. N. 

9 



130 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Wood, of Quaker parentage, from Ohio. He was ever ready 
for a scrimmage. One day, as he called for the mail for the 
citizens of Lawrence, at the post-office at Westport, while 
behind the boxes with the postmaster, some person in the 
crowd in the store used insulting language about him, which 
Wood overheard. When he had procured his mail he 
walked out from behind the screen and called for his in- 
sulter. He was pointed out, when Wood suddenly placed 
him upon the floor, and gave him the weight of a Free-State 
fist in his face and left him among his friends. Again, Wood 
had a claim against a man for some money which he had re- 
fused to pay. He said he had it in his pocket, but he defied 
any one to get it. Wood immediately proceeded to take 
the amount due from the pockets of his debtor. This was 
all the law that was recognized at that time, and Wood, be- 
ing a lawyer, knew how to enforce it. 

Making life a burden and worrying out Free-State settlers 
in Kansas by petty persecution was not the only occupation 
of the Slave-State men. There was a paper at Parkville, 
Missotu-i, called the Luminary, that had dared to criticise the 
raid into Kansas, and a pro-slavery paper gives this account 
of its treatment, as published in the Free State of Lawrence, 
May 7, 1855: 

" PARKVILLE MOB RESOLUTIONS. 

"Resolved, I. That the Parkville Industrial Ltiminary is a nuisance 
which has been endured too long, and should now be abated. 

" 2. That the ecUtors, to wit: G. S. Parks andW. J. Patterson, are 
traitors to the State and country in which they live, and should be dealt 
with as such. 

" 3. That we meet here again this day three weeks, and if we find 
G. S. Parks and W. J. Patterson in this town then, or at any subse- 
quent time, we will throw them into the Missouri River, and if they go 
to Kansas to reside, we pledge our honor as men to follow and hang 
them wherever we can take them. 

"4. That, at the suggestion of our Parkville friends, we will attend 
to some other free-soilers not far oflf. 

"5. That we will suffer no person belonging to the Northern 
Methodist Church to preach in Platte County after this date, under 



DESTRUCTION OF THE PRESS. I3I 

penalty of tar and feathers for the first offense, and hemp rope for the 
second. 

" 6. That we earnestly call upon our sister counties throughout the 
State to rise in their might and clean themselves of free-soilism. 

" 7. That our peace, our property, and our safety require us at this 
time to do our duty. 

" 8. That we request every pro-slavery paper in Missouri and Kan- 
sas to publish the above resolutions. 

"The press was then shouldered, with a white cap drawn over its 
head and labelled ' Boston Aid ' ; the crowd followed in regular order. 
It was marched up through town nearly to the upper landing, and there, 
with three hearty cheers, it was deposited in the tomb of ' all the Capu- 
lets,' to wit, the Missouri River. 

" A speech was then made to the crowd, and they dispersed peace- 
ably, each taking the road to his own home. 

" During the day frequent telegraphic dispatches were received from 
both ends of the line, of a most encouraging nature. Sic transit gloria 
Satin'di.'" 

All Free-State papers in Kansas were threatened with like 
destruction. 

The Platte, Mo., Argus, published this under the caption 
" Quietus of the Press " : 

' ' We further say, that the people having determined that Kansas 
shall become a slave State, will probably put a qmetiis upon abolition 
presses in Kansas Territory. The ' freedom of the press ' is not for 
traitors and incendiaries, but for those confining themselves within the 
bounds of the constitution and the laws ; and no bravado, no threats or 
challenges of any character whatever, will prevent the people of the 
South from driving from their midst men dangerous to their constitu- 
tional rights and liberties." 

Although the Legislature had been secured by the inva- 
sion and the weakness of the Governor, those on the border 
and in Kansas knew very well that the Free-State men were 
not conquered, although temporarily beaten. While the pro- 
slavery men claimed everything, and declared that the ques- 
tion was forever settled, they were more active than ever in 
their efforts to arouse the South and intimidate the North. 
The Herald of Freedom, of June i6, 1855, quotes the St. 
Louis Intellige7icer as follows : 



132 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" The light that is breaking upon the western horizon looks very 
much like the lurid flame of civil war. It is a solemn crisis that now 
impends over the country. We know that agents are out from western 
Missouri, striving to excite the people of the rest of the State to join 
them in the violent proceedings they have already started in Platte 
County. 

" If they succeed, Missouri will soon be in a flame. It will spread 
to the South ; the Union itself will perish like a burnt scroll ! 

" It is time for every patriot to be cool and firm. Our country must 
not perish thus. Our homes, our property, wives, and children must 
not be given up to civil war, mob law, and anarchy, to serve the purpose 
of a few desperate politicians. But there is great cause of alarm, and 
we warn our friends throughout the State tliat a volcano will speedily 
burst under their feet and destroy the State and the Union, unless they 
have virtue, prudence, and courage enough to resist approaches that will 
be made to them." 

In the same issue the Squatter Sovereign is quoted as 
saying : 

" From reports now received of Reeder, he never intends returning 
to our borders. Should he do so, tve, without hesitation, say that our 
people ought to hang him by the neck, like a traitor's dog, as he is, so soon 
as he puts his unhallowed feet upon our shores. 

" * * * Reeder is unworthy of the place he fills — wholly unfit to 
rule the independent sovereigns of Kansas. He cannot longer act as 
their Governor. They will not submit to it. We call upon our people 
to take the matter in hand. There is no other remedy. Vindicate your 
characters and the Territory, and should the ungi-ateful dog dare to come 
amongst us again, hang him to the first rotten tree. There is no other 
remedy, and the character of ourselves and our country requires us to 
act. A military force demanded — poor, contemptible puppy! — could 
an honorable, high-minded American citizen ever dream of such a de- 
mand? Nothing but the dark and muddy waters of abolitionism could 
have produced such an ofTspring as Reeder." 

The St. Louis Nezvs had this to say : 

" What has become of David R. Atchison, the former Vice-President, 
by courtesy, of the United States, the wagon orator, the man who con- 
tended with Stephen A. Douglas for the honor of having repealed the 
Missouri Compromise; the boozy backwoods speaker, who, in his 
maudlin speeches, blackguards better and greater men than himself, and 
speaks of John Bell as a ' miserable devil ' — where is he? He left his 
seat and duties in the Senate, and came to Missouri, before the close of 



SOUTHERN SENTIMENT. I33 

Congress, to get himself elected to the Senate for a second term, but he 
didn't succeed. 

" Rumors have reached us of tremendous threats made by him in re- 
lation to Missouri and Kansas, and we should like to know if he is go- 
ing to carry them out. We understand and believe that David R. 
Atchison is at the bottom of all the troubles that have afflicted Kansas, 
and is the chief instigator of the meetings, mobs and cabals, threats and 
excitements which threaten to plunge the border into a wild fratricidal 
strife, Atchison is the prime mover, and Stringfellow is his man of all 
work. Atchison is safely and quietly ensconced in his Platte County 
farm, testing the glories of those five barrels of ' Derby,' while his 
myrmidons, to whom he gives his orders, are scouring the country and 
arousing the people by flaming appeals to strife and bloodshed. 

" Does our boozy ' Old Bourbon ' think he is going to drift on the 
current of this fierce storm into the United States Senate? If so, he is 
mistaken. Missouri will not permit herself to be represented in the 
national councils by a political gambler, who would jeopardize his 
country's peace for his own selfish, sordid aggrandizement." 

The Charleston, S. C, Mercury sent up this shout of vic- 
tory : 

"THE KANSAS HOWL. 

" Never since the world began, among the demons in Milton's ' black 
abyss,' or the damned in Dante's Inferno, has there been heard such a 
howl as is now set up all over the North, by the dogs of fanaticism, 
upon their recent drubbing in Kansas. The abolition journals pour 
out daily diatribes against the hardy Missourians who drove away from 
their doors the horde of negro-stealers who threatened to overwhelm 
them. Now, really, the whole affair is decidedly ' the best joke of the 
season.' Bent upon ousting slavery from this fertile region by any and 
all means, not willing that civilization should flow on in its natural 
course, and determine by natural laws its institutions, but hastening to 
fill it up with hireling fanatics, seize the polls and control the Govern- 
ment. The abolitionists find themselves beaten, routed at their own 
game — their cnun emissaries made to vote the slavery ticket — while the 
triumphant Missourians march back to Independence with colors flying 
and bands of music, rejoicing that ' Kansas is safe!' No wonder they 
now howl and rend their garments, for fanaticism has for once met its 
master and been made to crouch. It is a signal and timely lesson. 
Had the South in its past contest exhibited half the courage and prompt- 
ness of Atchison and his true men, abolitionism would have been long 
since a harmless thing. It is also a timely lesson to the North, yet 
which will scarcely be heeded in its present fierce and aggressive mood, 



134 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

that there is a point at which the South will rise and wipe out, with 
deeds worthy of her hope and destiny, the wrongs and shame of the 
past." 

But, while the South was being thus cultivated for a new 
crop of invaders, the field in Kansas was not overlooked. 
Claim disputes were frequent, and persons singled out for 
mob violence. Near Lecompton two men, Hancock and 
Oakley, were removed from their claims, and one cabin 
biurned. " Marauding expeditions," says the Herald of Free- 
dom of June 2, 1855, "were frequently sent out for the pur- 
pose of annoying the settlers, or with the view of expelling 
them from their claims." Nothing could so influence the 
people of Missotui and the South as negro-stealing, as it was 
termed, and if a person was to be made specially obnoxious, 
this charge would be made. To mob a "nigger" thief 
would meet with the highest approval and reward. Among 
others the local agent of the Aid Company was set apart for 
consideration. The Herald of Freedom of June 16, 1855, 
has this clipping from the Frontier News: 

" We every day see handbills offering rewards for runaway negroes 
from Jackson and neighboring counties. Where do they go? There is 
an underground railroad leading out of western Missouri, and we would 
respectfully refer owners of lost niggers to the conductors of these 
trains. Inquire of Dr. Robinson, sole agent for the transportation of 
fugitive niggers." 

In the issue of the 23d of the same month is the fol- 
lowing : 

" Dr. Robinson is the sole agent for the underground railroad leading 
out of western Missouri, for the transportation of fugitive 'niggers. ' His 
office is in Lawrence, K. T. Give him a call." — Leavenworth He7-ald. 

To which the editor of the Herald of Freedom added : 

" We will go bail for the Doctor that he will be happy to receive a 
visit from his friends at any time. Messrs. Eastin and Pollard, when 
shall we inform Dr. R. that you and party will call upon him? " 



CURRENT GOSSIP. 135 

This defiant attitude was inspired by the one hundred 
Sharp's rifles, brought by Deitzler in April, which were put 
into the hands of a military company named " Stubbs." 

The Herald of Freedom of June i6, 1855, presents this 
picture of the current gossip : 

"A FALSE REPORT. 

" A correspondent of the Frontier News, writing from Franklin, in 
this Territory, gives the following startling intelligence : 

' ' ' Three boats have passed up. One of them landed five hundred 
Sharp's rifles at Lawrence, as a present from the Know-Nothing Legis- 
lature of Connecticut to the Emigrant Aid Society. Now, what flour- 
ishes! Here guns have been fixed up in an armory, ready for use. 
Let another squad of Missourians go to Lawrence for their runaway 
negroes, and they will see sights. I understand that the Aid Society 
men are to be organized with a regiment of one thousand men, to be 
armed with these rifles — one gun to two men — one to hold while the 
other shoots. The valiant Dr. Robinson is to be commander. The 
Doctor has a military reputation — he killed his man in California by 
knocking out a sleeping man's brains with a bar of iron. The Doctor 
will do. This regiment is to march to Pawnee when the Legislature 
meets and compel that body to give seats to Wood, Wakefield, and other 
abolition candidates who were so badly defeated on the 30th of March.' 

" Provided that report is true, when our border neighbors visit Law- 
rence again they will need to come strong-handed. If it required a 
thousand men and two cannon, with a heavy reserve who were sent to 
other districts beyond this, to reduce Lawrence to subjection on the 30th 
of March last, when we had less than two hundred resident voters in 
the city, and only partially armed with shot-guns at that, how many 
men, cannon, etc., will it require when v.-e are prepared with five hun- 
dred Sharp's rifles, each capable of throwing ten balls per minute, with 
exact precision, a distance of one mile, and, it is said, will carry very 
accurately a distance of even three miles? We hope that the report of 
our neighbor's correspondent is true. We would suggest that the next 
paper which copies that statement add, as additional information, that 
one hundred thousand cartridges, ready for immediate service, accom- 
panied the arms. The additional information will be in keeping with 
the other statement. 

"And as to our commander: If Dr. Robinson killed his man in 
California after a ball had passed through his body only two inches be- 
low his heart, and had the ability to inspire a handful of men with so 
much bravery on that occasion, what will he not do when the eyes of 
the whole nation are upon him urging him to duty, and he is seconded 



136 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

in every action by the thousand brave men who are ready to die in pref- 
erence to becoming slaves? Will our neighbor answer? " 

While the partisans of the South were endeavoring to reap 
the fruits of the invasion, the eiTect in the North was very 
encouraging to Free-State settlers. They were firm believers 
in the law of retribution, and were only concerned that their 
own conduct should be such as to meet the requirements of 
this law. Action and reaction are equal, and the rebound 
from the election was most terrific. It shook to its founda- 
tions the most powerful party ever in authority. The leading 
organs of that party were as outspoken and denunciatory as 
the most radical press. Some extracts follow : 

" RIFLES FOR KANSAS. 

" It is stated that some hundreds of Sharp's rifles have been sent out 
from Massachusetts, at the request of the new immigrants, to assist in 
the election. With this, we understand, the aid associations have noth- 
ing to do; it is entirely an individual affair." — Exchange. 

" Things are come to a pretty pass when ' rifles ' are to ' assist in 
our American elections.' The violent and indefensible conduct of the 
Missourians residing on the border, in interfering in the affairs of Kan- 
sas in a forcible manner, is the cause of the ' material aid ' now being 
sent out from Massachusetts in the shape of rifles. It is high time that 
the disgraceful scenes of turbulence and bloodshed, which have thus far 
characterized the organization of the Government in Kansas, were put 
an end to, for they are scandalizing the country. Upon Senator Atchi- 
son and his friends in Missouri rests the chief odium of this late high- 
handed proceeding." — Cincinnati Ejiqiiircr. 

" SENATOR ATCHISON AND HIS OLD FRIENDS. 

" No one could have felt more regret than ourselves at the course 
pursued by the armed bands of men who left Missouri, not with a view 
to settle in the Territory of Kansas, but to overawe the actual residents 
and control the elections there held. We saw clearly that public opin- 
ion, even among those who are willing to go all lengths to protect the 
South in her just rights, would not extenuate, much less sanction, so 
gross a violation of every principle of Republican Government. 

" We have heard Southern men denounce the act as one of madness, 
which would, in the end, produce its bitter fruits, by alienating the pa- 
triotic men of the Middle States from the South, or render them luke- 



DEMOCRATIC PRESS. 



^37 



warm. Already the effect of Missouri violence begins to manifest itself, 
and Senator Atchison is denounced in a manner which will very much 
damage his reputation as a public man and a good citizen. Some of the 
papers not wedded to abolitionism describe him as a roving bandit, 
armed with a bowie-knife, revolver, and rifle, and marching at the head 
of an infuriated mob of misguided men. 

" If this description be a truthful one, he is just the man that the 
Government should arrest, if it has the authority, or sustain Governor 
Reeder in doing the same thing, if the power is vested in him. Au- 
thority to punish such an offense lies somewhere, and in the absence of 
any statutory provision, the common law is adapted to just such an 
emergency. 

" The story is current in Philadelphia that Senator Atchison remarked 
to a number of gentlemen in Washington City, ' that the duty of estab- 
lishing slavery in Kansas had devolved on him.' 

" ' He had pledged his word that should be done, and by all that was 
holy, he would do it at every hazard. His own salvation depended 
upon the successful execution of his pledge.' No fair-minded man can 
doubt the right of Senator Atchison to legally execute his purpose. We 
hold the Territory to be as much the property of the South as the North, 
and equally susceptible of receiving their peculiar institutions ; but their 
institutions can no more be established by violence than those of the 
most ultra abolitionists." — Pennsylvanian. 

" When we characterize this as an infamous outrage, we use the 
mildest terms we can think of to convey our meaning. We supported 
the Nebraska-Kansas bill on principle, and we still believe the principle 
to be correct ; but in the name of justice and freedom, we solemnly pro- 
test against the conduct of the Missourian ruffians, and call upon the 
proper authorities of Kansas to repudiate the election as illegal and 
fraudulent. If the actual residettts of Kansas, with all the blighting in- 
fluences of slavery before their eyes, decide to plant that institution in 
their fair Territory, we shall submit, because the voice of the majority, 
fairly expressed, should and must govern in this country ; but God for- 
bid that either the North or the South should stand by and see it planted 
there by force and fraud without raising their voice, and if needs be their 
arms, against the consummation of so gross and lawless an outrage." — 
Harrisbiirg {Fa. ) Union. 

"GOVERNOR REEDER, OF KANSAS. 

" The Governor of Kansas, what is he? Who is he? Who made 
him? Why was he made? Does he stand for anything? Has he a 
function? A responsibility? An authority? A jurisdiction? Is he 
really a bearer of office? Is there a spark of gubernatorial life in or 



138 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

about him? Or is he a man of straw, a thing tricked out in official garb, 
but with a broom-stick for a back-bone and chalk for brains? It is high 
time for those whose handiwork he is to give an account of him, to tell 
us what manner of creature he is. If Governor Reeder is not a sham, 
so made and so kept up, he ought to know it. Either he himself is an 
imposition, or he is most outrageously imposed upon. 

" One thing is certain. Governor Reeder practically counts as noth- 
ing in the administration of Kansas. The Territory is at the mercy of 
a most abandoned set of vagabonds, the most abandoned that ever pol- 
luted the free soil of a country. There is actually neither governor nor 
government. Brute force is the only rule. Men have talked of the Ne- 
braska iniquity ; but that iniquity is spotlessness itself in comparison 
with the abuse which has been made of it. The pledge -breaking was 
bad enough, but it was done in the name of a principle. It is now the 
principle itself that is set at defiance, and, in every conceivable way, out- 
raged. The destroyers of the Compromise invoked the right of popular 
self-government as a justification of their bad faith, and therewith alone 
they carried their case. The Compromise disposed of, it is now the 
turn of the popular right itself, and its trustees, to suffer. The agree- 
ment of 1820 was superseded for the doctrine of squatter sovereignty. 
The doctrine of squatter sovereignty is superseded by invasion and vio- 
lence. It is absolutely certain — as certain as full and uncontradicted 
testimony can make it — that the election in Kansas for delegates to Con- 
gress, and the recent election for members of the territorial Legislature, 
were both controlled by armed intruders from Missouri. The real set- 
tlers of the country were outnumbered by men who took possession 
of the polls with a strong hand, and voted without right. The Mis- 
sourians themselves who engaged in this business not only admit it, but 
they boast of it. The journals of western Missouri not only furnish 
accounts of the departures and returns of the different detachments, but 
make grand flourishes over the success achieved. The only coloring 
they seek to put upon their baseness is a pretension that the errand of 
the invaders was to baffle like invasions from the Eastern States. It is 
a transparent mockery, which only adds insult to injury. * * * 

" The wrong has been committed. The question now is, shall it 
stand? Is this usurped election to hold good? Governor Reeder is a 
witness against it ; but what is Governor Reeder without the support of 
the Federal Government? He has not a man at his command. So far 
from being in a situation to extend protection to others, he has been 
covered with obloquy, been visited with deadliest threats ; he has been 
obliged to repair to Washington to make his extremity better known, 
and upon his heels comes a proclamation that his power is at an end, and 
a demand is made upon the President of the United States that a Gov- 
ernor shall be designated in the same way as the Legislature was chosen ; 



DEMOCRATIC CENSURE. 1 39 

in other words, that the original villainy shall be carried out with a fit 
instrument. The President has but one line of duty. He is bound to 
make the Federal law respected. He is bound to protect the territorial 
rights of the settlers of Kansas, and to uphold, in all the breadth of its 
appHcation, the principle of squatter sovereignty. He is bound to invali- 
date the late election as a monstrous piece of illegality, and to provide 
Governor Reeder with an armed force sufficient to protect the polls. He 
is bound to install Governor Reeder, the judges, and the marshals, into 
not only nominal, but into real power, and to provide them with every 
means for completing the organization of the Territory in accordance 
with the law which gave it existence. If soldiers are necessary, soldiers 
must be sent. Bayonets would be a thousand times better turned 
against these depredators upon civil rights, these bandits of civilization, 
than against the wronged and suffering Indians of the wilderness. The 
President, who has the power, must either undo the wrong or share 
the guilt. He is to act neither as an anti-slavery man nor as a pro- 
slavery man, but as the Executive of the United States, sworn to see 
that the Federal laws are faithfully carried into effect. 

" We have yet seen no evidence that the Southern people will sanc- 
tion or countenance these trespasses. We cannot believe that they 
will ; but whether they will or not, official duty remains the same. 

"The settlers of Kansas must be protected in their rights. The 
principle of sovereignty which the law consecrates, under the guaranty 
and with a full understanding of which the settlers have moved their 
homes, must be fully sustained and vindicated." — A\ V. Courier ana 
Enquirer. 

' ' This Congressional District, well known as ' the Old Tenth Legion,' 
gave General Pierce over five thousand majority, and sent Asa Packer 
to Congress by a still larger vote. No one will deny that he was a firm 
and consistent friend of the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and his course 
was approved by a larger majority than any member on the floor in the 
next House of Congress will be able to boast. The Democrats of this 
district are sound national men — neither nullifiers nor abolitionists. 
They despise the one as heartily as the other. They approve of the 
doctrine of ' popular sovereignty,' but they desire it to be fairly, legally, 
and honorably carried out. If it can be proven that men are sent from 
New England to Kansas for the mere purpose of voting, they should 
be expelled from the country. Such men have no business there. But 
we are inclined to doubt if this has ever been done. It is not very 
likely that men would travel two thousand miles with the single object to 
vote at a territorial election. Besides, we have ourselves seen hundreds 
of the men who went to Kansas under the auspices of the ' Emigrant 
Aid Company ' settled down on their claims, living in their cabins and 



I40 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

ploughing up the land. The Missourians do not do this ; they go one 
day and return home the next. To this we have a right, as Democrats 
and American citizens, to object, and we do protest against it most 
solemnly. It cannot be defended on any principle of right and justice, 
and if the doctrine of ' popular sovereignty ' is not enforced in its purity 
— if these invasions are not checked — if the state of things now existing 
in Kansas is not improved, we pledge our word and honor that it will 
be the last ' popular sovereignty ' bill the Democracy of Pennsylvania 
will ever aid in passing. We look with equal contempt on the bowlings 
of abolitionists and nullifiers, and profess to speak only for National 
Democrats, and the sensible and prudent of all parties." — Easton {Pa.) 
Argus. 

Thus it will be seen that both the Free-soil and national 
Democratic press of the North afiforded great aid and com- 
fort to the picket guard of freemen on the frontier. Only 
one party in the North gave no word of encouragement, and 
that was the Garrisonian party. But one full-fledged Garri- 
sonian, Charles Stearns, could be found in Kansas, and he 
quarrelled with the aid companies, their agents, and the 
pohcy adopted by the Free-State party. So bitter were his 
denunciations of the resident agent of the Aid Company that 
the papers refused to print some of them. He wrote to the 
Liberator of February i6, 1855, as follows: 

" It is true we denounce the Emigrant Aid Company, because we be- 
lieve it to be a hindrance to the cause of freedom, and a mighty curse 
to the Territory ; but we are the only ones who have taken a decided 
ground on the anti-slavery question. I have never heard of tlie Law- 
rence Association ever passing any anti-slavery resolutions. 

" Another point of importance is, that this association, with Robin- 
son at its head, advocates brute force in opposing the Missourians. 
Said Mr. R. to the marshal, in reference to some Missourians arrested 
for threatening the Yankees : ' If they fire, do you make them bite the 
dust, and I will find coffins.' " 

The Liberator oi April 13, 1855, said: "Beyond a doubt 
the fate of Kansas is sealed." 

In the same paper of June i, 1855, it said: 

" Will Kansas be a free State? We answer no, not while the existing 
Union stands. Its fate is settled. We shall briefly state some of the 
reasons which force us to this sad conclusion. 



VIEWS OF GARRISONIANS. 141 

" I. The South is united in the determination to make Kansas a slave 
State — ultimately, by division, half a dozen slave States, if necessary. 
She has never yet been foiled in her purposes thus concentrated and ex- 
pressed, and she has too much at stake to allow free speech, a free press, 
and free labor to hold the mastery in that Territory. 

" 2. Eastern emigration will avail nothing to keep slavery out of 
Kansas. We have never had any faith in it as a breakwater against the 
inundation of the dark waters of oppression. Hardly an abolitionist 
can be found among all who have emigrated to that country. Un- 
doubtedly the mass of emigrants are in favor of making Kansas a free 
State, as a matter of sound policy, and would do so if they were not 
under the dominion of Missouri ruffianism, or if they could rely upon 
sympathy of the general Government in this terrible crisis ; but they 
have not gone to Kansas to be martyrs in the cause of the enslaved negro, 
nor to sacrifice their chances for a homestead upon the altar of princi- 
ple, but to find a comfortable home for themselves and their children. 
Before they emigrated they gave little or no countenance to the anti- 
slavery cause at home. They partook of the general hostility or indif- 
ference to the labors of radical abolitionism ; at least they could only 
dream of making ' freedom national and slavery sectional after the man- 
ner of the fathers,' and they were poisoned more or less with virus of 
colorphobia. If they had no pluck here, what could be rationally ex- 
pected of them in the immediate presence of the demoniacal spirit of 
slavery? They represent the average sentiment of the North on this 
subject — nothing more — and that is still subservient to the will of the 
South. * * * 

" 3. The omnipotent power of the general Government will co- 
operate with the vandals of Missouri to crush out what little anti-slavery 
sentiment may exist in Kansas, and to sustain their lawless proceedings 
in that Territory. This will prove decisive in the struggle. 

" 4. On the subject of slavery, there is no principle in the Kansas 
papers ostensibly desirous of making it a free State. Here, for in- 
stance, is the Herald of Freedom, of May 12th, published in Lawrence, 
which claims to be, and we believe is, the most outspoken journal in 
Kansas in regard to the rights of bona fide settlers. What does its ed- 
itor say? Listen : ' While publishing a paper in Kansas, we feel that it 
is not our province to discuss the subject of freedom or slavery in the 
States.' Is not this the most heartless inhumanity, the most arrant, 
moral cowardice, the clearest demonstration of unsoundness of mind? 

" These are some of the reasons why we believe Kansas will inevita- 
bly be a slave State." 

Rev. T. AV. Higginson is reported in the Liberator of 
June 16, 1854, as follows: 



142 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" Here, for instance, is the Nebraska Emigration Society. It is, in- 
deed, a noble enterprise, and I am proud that it owes its origin to a 
Worcester man ; but where is the good of emigrating to Nebraska, if 
Nebraska is to be only a transplanted Massachusetts, and the original 
Massachusetts has been tried and found wanting? Will the stream rise 
higher than its source? Settle your Nebraska ten years, and you will 
have your New England harvest of corn and grain more luxuriant in 
that virgin soil. Ah! But will not the other Massachusetts crop come 
also, of political demagogues and wire-pullers, and a sectarian religion 
which will insure the passage of the greatest hypocrite to heaven, if he 
will join the right church before he goes? And give the emigrants 
twenty years more of prosperity, and then ask them, if you dare, to 
break the law, and disturb order, and risk life, merely to save their 
State from the shame that has just blighted Massachusetts." 

Wendell Phillips is reported in the Liberator of September 
28 and August 10, 1855, as follows: 

" Talk about stopping the progress of slavery and of saving Nebraska 
and Kansas ! Why, the fate of Nebraska and Kansas was sealed the 
first hour Stephen Arnold Douglas consented to play his perfidious part. 

" Why is Kansas a failure as a free State? I will tell you. You 
sent out there some thousand or two thousand men — for what? To 
make a living; to cultivate a hundred and sixty acres ; to build houses ; 
to send for their wives and children ; to raise wheat ; to make money ; 
to build saw-mills ; to plant towns. You meant to take possession of 
the country, as the Yankee race always takes possession of a country — 
by industry, by civilization, by roads, by houses, by mills, by churches. 
But it will take a long time ; it takes two centuries to do it. 

" The moment you throw the struggle with slavery into the half-bar- 
barous West, where things are decided by the revolver and bowie-knife, 
slavery triumphs. 

" What do I care for a squabble around the ballot-box in Kansas? " 

The policy of repudiation of the election and Legislature 
gradually gained strength in Kansas, and was formally an- 
nounced in resolutions. At a meeting held June 25, 1855, 
at Lawrence, these resolutions, among others, were adopted : 

"Resolved, That we are in favor of making Kansas a free Territory, 
and as a consequence a free State. 

"Resolved, That we look upon the conduct of a portion of the people 
of Missouri in the late Kansas election as a gross outrage upon the elect- 



DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 1 43 

ive franchise and our rights as free men, and a violation of the princi- 
ples of popular sovereignty ; and, inasmuch as many of the members of 
the present Legislature are men who owe their election to a combined 
system of force and fraud, we do not feel bound to obey any law of their 
enacting. 

^^ Resolved, That the legally elected members of the present Legisla- 
ture be requested, as good citizens of Kansas, to resign and repudiate 
the fraud. 

"Resolved, That in reply to the threats of war so frequently made in 
our neighboring State, our answer is we are ready. (On account of 
Sharp's rifles.) 

"Resolved, That we urge upon the people of Kansas to throw away 
all minor issues, and make the freedom of Kansas the only issue." 

June 27, 1855, James H. Lane makes his first public ap- 
pearance. He arrived in Kansas about the 20th of April, 
but had not before appeared in public councils or conven- 
tions. Rumors said he came to Kansas in favor of slavery ; 
tried to purchase a female slave on credit in Missouri, but 
could not get trusted ; had quarrelled with and separated 
from his wife, and jumped a Free-State man's claim, besides 
voting in Congress to open Kansas to slavery. At this date 
a National Democratic Convention was held, with James H. 
Lane as chairman, and Dr. J. N. O. P. Wood as secretary. 
A committee on resolutions was appointed, consisting of E. 
Chapman, C. W. Babcock, Dr. James Garvin, J. S. Emery, 
and Hugh Cameron. Resolutions were reported and adopted, 
some of which follow : 

"Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, the best interests of 
Kansas require an early organization of the Democratic party upon truly 
national grounds ; and that we pledge ourselves to use all honorable ex- 
ertions to secure such a result. 

"Resolved, That we fully endorse and re-affirm the Democratic plat- 
form as laid down at the National Democratic Convention held at Bal- 
timore in 1852." 

No repudiation here, Mr, Chapman, one of the com- 
mittee on resolutions, had been elected councilman by the 
invasion of the 30th of March, and Hugh Cameron, another 



144 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

member, was judge of election and received the invaders' 
votes. 

The Herald of Freedom, of June 30th, thus comments upon 
this convention : 

" We regret to learn that measures were taken by a few persons on 
Wednesday evening last to organize a Democratic party of this Terri- 
tory. Such a movement can result in no good to any one, but may do 
much damage. There is but one issue pending in Kansas, and that 
issue must be settled before others are precipitated upon us. The 
movement looks to us like an effort to suppress the public will, and we 
hope it will not be successful." 

The Free State and Tribune also took a similar position, 
as the editors of both papers attended the Free-State meet- 
ing of the 25th, and endorsed the repudiation resolutions. 

As the Fourth of July approached it was decided to cele- 
brate that day in a fitting manner. The question of fitness 
was not easily settled. Those who wanted a celebration to 
glorify the Government and Union desired Colonel Lane for 
orator, but such as wanted a celebration to correspond to the 
condition of the people as subjects of Missouri desired Dr. 
Robinson. As this was the more numerous class at Law- 
rence, he was selected. His speech was bitterly denounced 
by National Democrats, but warmly endorsed by the repudi- 
ators. The gathering was very large, some walking sixteen 
miles to attend it. The Shawnee and Delaware Indians 
were present and participated in the proceedings. Being the 
first Fourth of July celebration in Kansas, and Kansas being 
virtually a conquered province, the like of it will never be seen 
again. The two organized military companies, armed with 
Sharp's rifles, besides many volunteers, appeared in uniform 
and were presented with a beautiful silk banner by the ladies. 
Mrs. Gates made the presentation speech, closing with these 
words : " Let not threats of tyrants, foreign or domestic, intim- 
idate you ; but move firmly and fearlessly in the path of truth 
and right principle, and if you should fail to accomplish the 
object of your mission, you shall at least have the sweet con- 



FLAG PRESENTATION. 1 45 

sciousness of having stood steadfastly in a good cause. Never 
surrender that flag into the hands of your enemies, and save 
it from dishonor or perish in the attempt." 

S. N. Wood, on behalf of the companies, responded with 
a patriotic speech, closing as follows : " And should a san- 
guinary conflict be forced upon us, I know I speak the char- 
acter of every soldier who has or may rally under these 
talismanic stars and stripes, they will demean themselves like 
men. This flag and the sacred cause it represents will by 
them never be deserted or dishonored. Surrender this flag ! 
No, never, while one of our men is able to bear it above 
the carnage of a battle-field, or falling, grasp its folds with his 
hand for a winding sheet ! " 

The condition of the people and spirit of the occasion may 
be learned by a few extracts from the address : 

" This day, the 79th Anniversary of the Declaration of American In- 
dependence, finds us in a new and strange country, and surrounded by 
circumstances interesting and peculiar. While the echoes of the boom- 
ing cannon are reverberating among our native hills, and the merry 
peals of the church-going bells are announcing to the world the rejoic- 
ings of a great and prosperous people, that their days of weakness, 
suffering, and thraldom are past, we arc here in a remote wilderness, 
to found a new State, and to plant anew the institutions of our patriotic 
ancestors. It is a day to us of peculiar significance. While we would 
pay a tribute of respect to that period which, in the annals of this nation, 
will ever be regarded as most sacred ; while, with one accord and one 
voice, we worship in the Temple of Liberty, uncontaminated by party 
distinctions or sectional animosities, and unite in the endeavor to raise 
some fitting memento of a nation's gratitude for the declarations of that 
day, the most glorious in the history of a mighty people, we should also 
gather lessons of instruction from the past by which to be guided in the 
erection of a new State in the heart of this great Republic. * * * 

" The Colonies, both North and South, made common cause against 
the indignities and outrages heaped upon a part of the country, and united 
in a general convention of representatives from different Colonies, to 
devise ways and means for the common safety. The result of their de- 
liberations was the Declaration of Independence, to the reading of 
which we have this day listened. The truths of that ever-memorable 
document were as old as the Christian religion, but their adoption as 
the rule of faith and practice by a vigorous and growing nation, marked 
10 



146 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

an era in the history of the world unprecedented. A belief in the 
equality of man and the sacredness of life and liberty therein expressed, 
can be cherished only by those who believe ' that all the nations who 
dwell upon the face of the earth are made of one blood.' The estab- 
lishment of these principles cost our ancestors a struggle with the 
mother country of seven years' duration. No sacrifice was counted too 
dear to secure to the people of these United States the right to govern 
themselves, to choose their own rulers, make their own laws, and wor- 
ship God in their own way. Peace at length was proclaimed through- 
out the land, and close in her footsteps came prosperity, which has 
continued with but little interruption till the present time. * * • 

"One lesson the history of our Government should teach us who 
have chosen Kansas for our home, and that is especially applicable to 
the instruction of this day, viz. : the more closely the principles of the 
Declaration of Independence are followed as the basis of Government, 
and the more universal they are made in their application, the more 
prosperous the Government and people. 

" As the people of Kansas Territory are to-day the subjects of a 
foreign State, as laws are now being imposed upon us by the citizens 
of Missouri, for the sole purpose of forcing upon this Territory the 
institution of slavery, I surely need make no apology for devoting the 
few moments allotted me on this occasion to an examination of the 
effects of that institution upon a State and people, whether politically, 
morally, or socially. I ask you not to-day to listen to arguments of 
abolitionists, or for abolitionism. I wish not now to wage war upon 
slavery or slave-holders in any State of this Union, or to interfere in 
any respect with our neighbors' affairs, but it is for ourselves, our 
families, our own institutions and our prosperity — it is for Kansas I ask 
your attention. Is it politic, is it for our moral, intellectual or pecuniary 
advancement to submit to the dictation of a foreign power in regard to 
our laws and institutions? This is the question that deeply interests us 
all, and for the consideration of which this day is most appropriate. 

" The foregoing are but a few paragraphs of the volumes that might 
be quoted to prove the blessings of liberty and the evils of slavery. 
Liberty, the goddess to whom this day is dedicated, showers upon her 
votaries peace and prosperity, intelligence and enterprise, morality 
and religion. The inspirer and guide of Washington and the patriotic 
fathers, may she become the presiding genius of our own beautiful 
Kansas ! Slavery — the opposite and antagonist of Liberty, the ruin of 
nations, the impoverisher of .States, the demoralizer of communities, the 
curse of the world, and child of hell — may she go to her own place. 
On this day and this occasion we may speak freely, assured that no 
offense can be given by the strongest expression in favor of freedom, 



CONDITION OF SETTLERS, I47 

or in opposition to slavery, as no one who is in favor of the latter 
can join in the celebration of this day. No person who does not 
' hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal ; 
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inahenable rights ; 
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' can con- 
sistently participate in the festivities of this day. Nay, should we fail 
to speak in utter detestation of slavery, and to hurl defiance at the mon- 
ster on this anniversary of freedom's natal day, especially when the 
tyrant has already placed his foot upon our own necks, why, the very 
stones would cry out. 

" Fellow-citizens, let us for a moment inquire ivho, and ivhere, and 
what are we? 

" Who are we? Are we not free-born? Were not our mothers, as 
well as our fathers, of Anglo-Saxon blood? Was not the right to govern 
ourselves, to choose our own rulers, to make our own laws, guaranteed 
to us by the united voice of the United States? 

"Where are we? Are we not in the most beautiful country that 
human eye ever beheld? Is it not, for surface, soil, and productions, 
worthy to be styled the garden of the world? A wilderness, yet already 
budding and blossoming like the rose? A new country, yet having the 
appearance in its diversity of meadow and woodland, hill and dale, of a 
land long inhabited, and most beautifully and tastefully laid out into 
parks and groves? With a mild and salubrious climate, a dry, pure 
atmosphere, must it not soon become the resort of the invalid from the 
consumptive East and the ends of the earth? 

" Our situation, geographically, is in the centre of this Republic, at 
the half-way station between the Atlantic and Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico 
and the British possessions. The ' Father of Waters ' extends to us 
his great right arm, and proffers the commerce of the world and a 
market for all our productions ; and the line of steam and telegraphic 
communication that is soon to encircle the globe will, of course, pass 
directly through this Territory, thus bringing to our very doors the 
commerce of China and the Indies. 

" What are we? Subjects, slaves of Missouri. We come to the cele- 
bration of this anniversary, with our chains clanking about our limbs ; 
we lift to Heaven our manacled arms in supplication ; proscribed, out- 
lawed, denounced, we cannot so much as speak the name of Liberty 
except with prison walls and halters looking us in the face. We must 
not only see black slavery, the blight and curse of any people, planted 
in our midst, and against our wishes, but we must become slaves our- 
selves. Hear our masters : 

" ' Our Legislature should make the publishing or writing of aboli- 
tionism an offense of a high grade, both indictable and actionable, if 
loss is sustained.' — Squatter Sovereign. 



I4» THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" ' Only one Free-soiler will get a seat in the Legislative Assembly, 
and he will be expelled unless he mends his manners very much.' — 
Squatter Sovereign. 

" ' It is to be admitted that they (the Missourians) have conquered 
Kansas. Our advice is, let them hold it, or die in the attempt.' — Platte 
Argus. 

" At a meeting held at Leavenworth, our conquerors resolved as fol- 
lows : 

" 'Resolved, That no man has a right to go into any community and 
disturb its peace and quiet by doing incendiary acts or circulating incen- 
diary sentiments. We therefore advise such as are unwilling to submit 
to the institutions of this country, to leave for some climate more con- 
genial to their feelings, as abolition sentiments cannot, nor will not, be 
tolerated here ; and while we do not say what may be the consequences, 
for the peace and quiet of the community we urge all entertaining and 
expressing such sentiments to leave immediately, claiming the right to 
expel all such as persist in such a course. 

" 'Resolved, That in the present state of public excitement, there is 
no such thing as controlling the ebullition of feeling, while material re- 
mains in the country on which to give it vent. To the peculiar friends 
of our Northern fanatics, we say, this is not your country. Go home 
and vent your treason where you may find sympathy. 

" 'Resolved, That the institution of slavery is known and recognized 
in this Territory, and that we repel the doctrines that it is a moral or 
political evil ; and we hurl back with scorn upon its slanderous authors 
the charge of inhumanity; and we warn all persons not to come to our 
peaceful firesides to slander us and sow seeds of discord between the 
master and the servant, for much as we may be driven, we cannot be 
responsible for the consequences. 

" 'Resolved, That a vigilance committee, consisting of thirty members, 
shall now be appointed, who shall observe and report all such persons 
as shall openly act in violation of law and order, and by the expression 
of abolition sentiments produce disturbance to the quiet of the citizens, 
or danger to their domestic relations, and all such persons so offending 
shall be notified and made to leave the Territory.' 

" * Abolition editors in slave States will not dare to avow their opin- 
ions. It would be instant death to them.' — Rlissoiiri Argjis. 

"The Charleston Courier (nth August, 1835) declared that 'the 
gallows and the stake'' awaited the abolitionist who should dare to 
' appear in person among us.' 

' ' ' The cry of the whole South should be death, instant death to the 
abolitionist, whenever he is caught.' — Aiigusta (Ga.) Chronicle. 

" ' Let us declare through the public journals of our country, that 
the question of slavery is not and shall not be open to discussion ; that 



SOUTHERN THREATS. 149 

the system is too deep-rooted among us, and must remain forever ; that 
the very moment any private individual attempts to lecture us upon its 
evils and morality, and the necessity of putting means in operation to 
secure us from them, in the same moment his tongue shall be cut out 
and cast upon the dunghill.' — Cohonbia (S. C.) Telescope. 

" ' The true-hearted citizens of East Tennessee and property-holders 
ought to enter into leagues, and whip, black, and ride on a rail, irre- 
spective of age, calling, family, association, every preacher, citizen, or 
traveller, who dares to utter one word in opposition to slavery, or who 
is found in possession of an abolition document. These are our senti- 
ments, and we are willing and ready to help others to carry them out.' 
— Parson Brownlo^i). 

"And who, or what is an abolitionist? Why, everybody is an 
abolitionist, according to their dictionary, who dares to have an opinion 
of his own upon the subject of the rights of man in any respect differing 
from theirs. No distinction is made between the man who is opposed 
to the establishment of slavery in Kansas and him who is opposed to 
its existence in the States ; between the man who would return him who 
had escaped to his master and him who would direct the fugitive to the 
land of liberty. Said one of the chivalry, whose name is suggestive of 
hemp factories, ' Had I the power, I would hang every abolitionist in 
the country, and every man north of Mason and Dixon's line is an 
abolitionist.' This was said with the emphasis and accompaniments 
peculiar to the individual. These gentlemen and Christians ' repel the 
doctrine that it (slavery) is a moral or political evil,' and ' hurl back 
with scorn the charge of inhumanity,' and warn all persons of different 
views not to come to Kansas, for they shall be ' made to leave the Ter- 
ritory,' if they do. ' Jlfade to leave! ' indeed. Well, a ' right smart good 
time of it,' may our neighbors have in making all leave Kansas who 
will not bow down and worship the calves they set up. 

" Made to leave! Gentlemen, look at that beautiful banner, think 
from whence it came, and of the motives which prompted its presenta- 
tion, and then think about being MADE TO LEAVE your country, for 
no crime ! One thing appears evident : if we are made to leave, the 
ladies will be ashamed to follow, and will let us go alone. 

" Persons may teach that the Declaration of Independence is a lie; 
that tyranny and oppression a thousand-fold more severe than that 
which our ancestors rose in rebellion against are right ; that marriage 
is a mockery ; that the parent shall not have possession of his own child, 
nor the husband his wife; that education is a crime; that traffic in 
human beings, the bodies and souls of men, is a virtue. All this may 
be taught with impunity in this boasted land of ours, and those who 
teach such things must be recognized as gentlemen and Christians ; but 
to teach that all men are created equal ; that they have an inalienable 



150 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

right to life and liberty ; that oppression is a crime, and that education, 
religion, and good morals are virtues — this is not to be tolerated for a 
moment. Tar and feathers, the gallows and stake, await all persons 
who dare express a belief in such dangerous doctrines, if we can believe 
our masters. Masters, did 1 s&y} Heaven forbid! Subjects? slaves? 
Oh, no! It is all a mistake. What! the whiskey-drinking, profane, 
blasphemous, degraded, foul-mouthed, and contemptible rabble that in- 
vaded our Territory at the late elections our masters? Never! never! 
I can say to Death, be thou my master ; and to the grave, be thou my 
prison-house ; but acknowledge such creatures my masters, never! No, 
thank God, we are yet free, and hurl defiance at those who would make 
us slaves. 

' ' ' Look on who will in apathy, and stifle they who can, 

The sympathies, the hopes, the words, that make man truly man ; 
Let those whose hearts are dungeoned up with interest or with ease. 
Consent to hear with quiet pulse of loathsome deeds like these! 
We first drew in New England's air, and from her hardy breast. 
Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk, that will not let us rest ; 
And if our words seem treason to the dullard and the tame, 
'Tis but our native dialect, — our fathers spake the same.' 

"With truth and justice on our side we have nothing to fear, for — 

" ' Thrice is he armed who has his quarrel just, 
And he but naked, though locked up in steel, 
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.' 

" Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted, if not his who with- 
holds from the laborer his due ; who makes merchandise of men, women, 
and children ; who sunders family ties, sending the husband perhaps to 
the cane-fields of Mississippi, the wife to a New Orleans brothel, and 
the children to the rice swamps of Alabama, never to see each other 
again, and all to spend their lives amid whips and chains? Is it not 
' confirmation strong as holy writ,' that their conscience is corrupted, 
when such men ' repel the doctrine ' that such proceedings are wrong, 
either morally or politically? when they 'hurl back with scorn' the 
charge that conduct like this can be inhuman? Perhaps it is not in- 
human, if they are fair samples of humanity, but it is certainly unbeast- 
like. 

" And who are the cowards in this contest, if not those who shun in- 
vestigation, tremble at free discussion, or even the expression of an 
opinion ; who cry out, ' Down with the press, down with the church, 
down with every man that disapproves of oppression? ' And what acts 
are cowardly, if it is brave and manly for scores of men, maddened with 



ISSUE ACCEPTED. 151 

whiskey, to prowl about in the dark and destroy the defenseless, to 
seize peaceable and unarmed citizens, to tar and feather them, to throw 
printing presses into the river, and threaten to shoot governors and 
hang editors, and especially to march upon a weak and defenseless 
people by thousands, armed with deadly weapons of all kinds (the 
most deadly of which is whiskey), and trample under their feet the 
dearest rights of freemen, imposing upon a neighboring Territory 
a foreign government and laws not of their choice, at the point of 
the bayonet? If such acts are brave and heroic, what are cowardly and 
villainous ? 

" What reason is given for the cowardly invasion of our rights by 
our neighbors? No good reason is or can be given. They and their 
apologists say that if Kansas is allowed to be free, the institution of 
slavery in their own State will be in danger ; that the contrast between 
a free and a slave State will be so great their own citizens will become 
abolitionists, or the under-ground railroad will relieve them of their 
slaves. But from the first cause there is no danger of alarm, if their 
doctrine is correct, that slavery is a blessing, and not a moral or political 
evil. If it is the humane institution they represent, who will want to 
see it abolished? As to the second cause, there is no ground to fear, 
provided the people of Missouri mind their own aifairs and let ours 
alone, for it is not true that the settlers in Kansas have enticed away 
a single negro, or attempted to do so. On this point we speak by 
authority, for do not the Westport and other Missouri papers say that 
the general agency of this line of travel is under our charge, and did 
those papers ever tell an untruth? We say, then, officially, that up to 
the present time, not the first rail has been laid of this road in Kansas ; 
but the workmen are in readiness, and will commence operations with a 
will, if our affairs are again interfered with by foreign intruders. If 
the people of Missouri make it necessary, by their unlawful course, for 
us to establish freedom in that State in order to enjoy the liberty of 
governing ourselves in Kansas, then let that be the issue. If Kansas 
and the whole North must be enslaved, or Missouri become free, then 
let her be made free. Aye, and if to be free ourselves, slavery must be 
abolished in the whole country, then let us accept that issue. If black 
slavery in a part of the States is incompatible with white freedom in any 
State, then let black slavery be banished from all. As men espousing 
the principles of the Declaration of the fathers, we can do nothing less 
than accept these issues. Not that we are unfriendly to the South — far 
from it. If there be any true friend of the South in this assembly, to 
him we say that our love of the South is no less than his. If, then, 
such friend demand why we are ready to accept this issue, this is our 
answer : Not that we love the South less, but we love our country 
more. ' Had you rather Csesar were living, and die all slaves, than 



152 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

that CcEsar were dead, to live all freemen? ' ' Who is here so base that 
would be a bondman? If any speak, for him have I offended.' 

" Fellow-citizens, in conclusion, it is for us to choose for ourselves, 
and for those who shall come after us, what institution shall bless or 
curse our beautiful Kansas. Shall we have freedom for all her people, 
and consequent prosperity, or slavery for a part, with the blight and 
mildew inseparable from it? 

" Choose ye this day which you will serve, slavery or freedom, and 
then be true to your choice. If slavery is best for Kansas, then choose 
it ; but if liberty, then choose that. 

" Let every man stand in his own place, and acquit himself like a 
man who knows his rights, and knowing, dares maintain them. Let 
us repudiate all laws enacted by foreign legislative bodies, or dictated 
by Judge Lynch over the way. Tyrants are tyrants, and tyranny is 
tyranny, whether under the garb of law or in opposition to it. So 
thought and so acted our ancestors, and so let its think and act. We 
are not alone in this contest. The entire nation is agitated upon the 
question of our rights. The spirit of '76 is breathing upon some; the 
handwriting upon the wall is being discerned by others, while the re- 
mainder the gods are evidently preparing for destruction. 

" Every pulsation in Kansas vibrates to the remotest artery of the 
body politic, and I seem to hear the millions of freemen and the millions 
of bondmen in our own land, the patriots and philanthropists of all coun- 
tries, the spirits of the Revolutionary heroes, and the voice of God, all 
saying to the people of Kansas, ' Do your duty.' " 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE. THE TOPEKA CONSTI- 
TUTION. 

On the second day of July the so-called Territorial Legis- 
lature met at Pawnee, where it was called by proclamation 
of the Governor. Governor Reeder recognized this body 
as the Legislature of Kansas, and delivered an elaborate 
message in due form. The first action taken was to purge 
the body of the men chosen at the second election in place 
of such as had been refused certificates by the Governor, 
and to seat the latter in their stead. These men thus uncere- 
moniously expelled had been importuned by the Free-State 
men, privately, and publicly by resolution, to repudiate the 
Legislature in advance, on the ground of invasion and fraud, 
but they decided otherwise. It is true they made a long and 
elaborate protest, but it had but little influence, as they had 
yielded the strongest objection, namely, the illegahty of the 
body itself. M. F. Conway, on the other hand, who had been 
declared elected to the council by throwing out one precinct, 
stood up manfully and repudiated the whole performance. He 
had visited Robinson's house with Kersey Coates and Deitz- 
ler, and the whole matter was fully discussed. While Conway 
was at first inclined to follow Reeder in recognition of the 
legality of the Legislature, he yielded to the arguments of 
Coates, Deitzler, and Robinson, and, instead of presenting his 
credentials, sent his resignation to the Governor. As this res- 
ignation embodies the Free-State case, extracts are here given : 

" It is a fact which has travelled the circuit of the whole civilized 
world, that this Legislature has been imposed upon the people of 



154 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Kansas by force of arms. Those who compose it, and those whom 
they represent, and for whom they act, are alien enemies, who have 
violently seized the legislative power of this Territory, and seek to dis- 
guise their tyranny under the form of constitutional enactments. 
Their Legislature is substantially a provincial council, instituted and 
ordained by a daring and unscrupulous league in the State of IMissouri, 
and other parts of the South, to govern a people whose liberties they 
have ruthlessly stricken down. This fact has been placed beyond 
controversy by authentic details of concerted operations, looking to 
this end, and of overwhelming violence, at the recent elections, unpar- 
alleled in all our political history. Under these circumstances, it would 
be either fraudulent or pusillanimous in me to respect this as the 
Legislature of Kansas. I am not willing to do it. Whatever the 
timorous or the time-serving may suggest or advise, I shall do nothing 
of the kind. Instead of recognizing this as the Legislature of Kansas, 
and participating in its proceedings as such, I utterly repudiate and 
reprobate it, as derogatory to the respectability of popular government, 
and insulting to the virtue and intelligence of the age. 

"As an individual citizen of Kansas, I am furthermore free to say 
to your Excellency, representing, as you do, the imperial authority of 
the Federal Government in this land, that, while I am entirely disposed 
to pay all respect to the lawfully constituted authorities, I am yet not 
willing, whatever power may command it, to bend my neck, like a sat- 
isfied and gentle slave, to the yoke of foreign tyrants. To do so, 
would prove me recreant to all the lessons of heroism or of duty I ever 
learned. I am so unfortunate as to have been trained to some crude 
notion of human rights — some such notions as those for which, in ages 
past, our foolish ancestry perilled their lives on Revolutionary fields. 
And, however widespread may be the disrepute into which the puerile 
fallacies have fallen in these sterling and enlightened times, I am still 
bold to withstand their violation, in my own person, to the last ex- 
tremity of just resistance. Simply as a citizen and a man, I shall, 
therefore, yield no submission to this alien Legislature. On the con- 
trary, I am ready to set its assumed authority at defiance, and shall be 
prompt to spurn and trample under my feet its insolent enactments 
whenever they conflict with my rights or inclination. 

" Very respectfully yours, 

" M. F. Conway. 

"Gov. A. H. Reedej; Pawnee, K. T., June 30, iS^^y 

After seating the members elected by the invasion, the 
Legislature adjourned from Pawnee, where the Governor 
had located the temporary capitol, to the Shawnee Mission, 



REEDER A REPUDIATOR. 



55 



near the border of Missouri. Governor Reeder vetoed this 
action, but his veto was overridden with ease and Pawnee 
was evacuated. Now the Governor joined the repudiators, 
but, unfortunately, the ground of his repudiation was much 
less fimi than that occupied by the Free-State party, and he 
never received the credit for heroic action that would have 
been accorded had he placed his repudiation on the invasion 
of the polls on the 30th of March. However, his course, 
even at this late day, gave great strength and encourage- 
ment to the Free-State cause. From that time till the end 
of the conflict he was a power second to none in the contest. 
He was a lawyer of ability, a man of unimpeachable integ- 
rity, and universally recognized as a statesman and patriot. 
No man stood higher in Kansas or out, and the Free-State 
men were proud of counting him on their side. 

S. D. Houston, the only Free-State member whose elec- 
tion was conceded by the Slave-State party, resigned his 
seat, giving his reasons at length in a paper that was pub- 
lished and regarded as most able and conclusive, as to the 
illegality of this pretended Legislature. As the Governor 
refused to recognize the Legislature, an issue direct was 
made that could not be ignored at Washington. The Presi- 
dent must side either with the Governor or with the Legis- 
lature ; and if with the latter, the former would lose his official 
head. Already steps had been taken to get rid of him. The 
whole pro-slavery horde had demanded his removal, and 
some charges or complaints had been made of land specula- 
tion and the like. The excitement over the territorial elec- 
tion had been so widespread that the Administration did not 
dare meet the question fairly and give the true reason for 
Reeder's removal. In the meantime two of the judges, with 
unseemly haste, endorsed the validity of this Legislature and 
the laws it might enact, foreshadowing the course of the Ad- 
ministration at Washington. The Legislature, although ig- 
nored by the Governor, whose prerogative it was to sign 
their enactments, proceeded to business, and in sixty days 



156 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

turned out a mass of statutes equal in volume, and almost 
identical in substance, with the statutes of the State of Mis- 
souri, providing that wherever the word " State " appeared in 
any law the word " Territory " should be substituted or un- 
derstood. At length, after various rumors, official informa- 
tion was received by the Legislature, August 16, 1855, that 
Governor Reeder was removed. 

This removal, under the circumstances, reacted against the 
Slave-State party with scarcely less effect than did the inva- 
sion of the 30th of March. Governor Reeder's answer to 
the charge of illegal speculation in land, a most tart and 
pungent reply to Commissioner Mannypenny, was pubhshed, 
and the most conservative Democratic papers denounced the 
removal and severely censured the Administration. Thus far 
every step taken by the Slave-State party had helped the Free- 
State cause in accordance with the unwritten and universal law 
of retribution. The Slave-State men having the Government 
in their possession, were arrogant, defiant, over-bearing, and 
despised their antagonists. The Free-State men were osten- 
sibly beaten, overwhelmed, and crushed, yet really self-reliant, 
hopeful, and exultant over the blunders of their opponents. 

When the character of the enactments of this Legislature 
became known, another revulsion occurred most beneficial 
to the Free-State cause. Not only was the worse than Dra- 
conian code enacted against Free-State men, but they were 
virtually disfranchised. Instead of leaving the choice of 
county officers to the voters, the Legislature itself appointed 
them for a term of years, and gave them full control of all 
future elections, besides requiring a test oath of a challenged 
voter. Many of the enactments were simply infamous, as 
some selected specimens will show : 

" Section i. If any person shall entice, decoy, or carry away out of 
this Territory, any slave belonging to another, with intent to deprive 
the owner thereof of the services of such slave, or with intent to effect 
or procure the freedom of such slave, he shall be adjudged guilty of 
grand larceny, and on conviction thereof, shall suffer death. 

" Sec. 2. If any person shall aid or assist in enticing, decoying or 



TYRANNICAL ENACTMENTS. I 57 

persuading, or carrying away or sending out of this Territory, any 
slave belonging to another, with intent to procure or effect the freedom 
of such slave, or with intent to deprive the owner thereof of the services 
of such slave, he shall be adjudged guilty of grand larceny, and on 
conviction thereof, suffer death. 

" Sec. 3. If any person shall entice, decoy, or carry away out of any 
State or other Territory of the United States, any slave belonging to 
another, with intent to procure or effect the freedom of such slave, or 
deprive the owner thereof of the services of such slave, and shall bring 
such slave into this Territory, he shall be adjudged guilty of grand lar- 
ceny, in the same manner as if such slave had been enticed, decoyed, or 
carried away out of this Territory, and in such case the larceny may be 
charged to have been committed in any county of this Territory, into or 
through which such slave shall have been brought by such person, and 
on conviction thereof, the person offending shall suffer death. 

" Sec. II. If any person print, write, publish or circulate, or cause 
to be brought into, printed, written, published or circulated, or shall 
knowingly aid or assist in bringing into, printing, publishing or circu- 
lating within this Territory, any book, magazine, handbill or circular, 
containing any statements, arguments, opinions, sentiments, doctrine, 
advice or innuendo, calculated to promote a disorderly, dangerous, or 
rebellious disaffection among the slaves in this Territory, or to induce 
such slaves to escape from the service of their masters, or to resist their 
authority, he shall be guilty of a felony, and be punished by imprison- 
ment and hard labor for a term not less than five years. 

" Sec. 12. If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or 
maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in this Territory, 
or shall introduce into this Territory, print, publish, write, circulate, 
or cause to be introduced into this Territory, written, printed, published 
or circulated in this Territory, any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet or 
circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in 
this Territory, such person shall be deemed guilty of felony, and pun- 
ished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not less than two 
years." 

The organic act professed to leave the slavery question 
open for discussion and decision by the people, but this 
Legislature had closed the case and rendered the verdict, 
and proposed to send to the penitentiary every man who 
dared to ask for a hearing. This legislation, as soon as 
generally known, revived the interest in Kansas affairs in the 
North and East, where it had begun to flag. On account 



158 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

of the cholera, the political disturbances, the pretended elec- 
tion of a Slave-State Legislature, and for other reasons, the 
emigration had subsided during the summer, not only from 
the North, but from the South. While the question was un- 
decided, men from the South did not care to remove where 
their slaves might be unsafe, and it required great courage 
on the part of men from the North to remove to a Territory 
where slavery so far had been triumphant. The St. Louis 
Intelligence?; as given in the Free State oi October 10, 1855, 
says: 

" Our news from western Missouri is of an ominous and most dis- 
couraging character. That region is suffering from mildew and blight. 
Its glory dimmed, its spirits abated, and its hope fading. 

" The emigration to Kansas is almost entirely checked. Emigrants 
from the Northern and free States have ceased to go to Kansas, because 
they can find as good land elsewhere not cursed by mob law, nor ruled 
by non-resident bullies. Emigrants from the Southern States do not 
go to Kansas, because they will not put their slave property in peril, 
by taking it into a Territory where there is a free-soil element, threaten- 
ing the security of slaves. 

" Any man of sense might have foreseen this result. Alabama and 
Georgia may hold public meetings, and resolve to sustain the slave- 
holders in Missouri in making Kansas a slave State. But their resolu- 
tions comprise all their aid, which is not ' material ' enough for the 
crisis. When slave-holders of Alabama and Georgia emigrate, they 
go to Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. They do not come with their 
slaves to Missouri or Kansas. Call they that, backing their friends? 

" Thus the matter stands: The Northern emigrants shun Missouri 
and Kansas as plague spots of the nation. The Southern emigrants 
shun Missouri and Kansas, because here is the battle-ground between 
salvery and free-soil. 

" The result is, Kansas, the fairest land under the sun, is neglected 
and idle; occupied by a few honest and earnest but disheartened 
pioneers, and lorded over by a dozen or two feudal tyrants of Missouri, 
who curse by their presence the land they have desolated. 

" The most aggravating stories of insults and outrages commjfted by 
Missourians on the persons of emigrants from the Old World, or from 
the free States, who are found ascending the Missouri River, are cir- 
culated in the free States ; and it is impossible to conceive of the hatred 
thus generated toward our whole State in the northern half of the Union. 



SOUTHERN TESTIMONY. 1 59 

" Between these fires Missouri is leading on her languid existence. 
St. Louis is retarded in a most woeful way. Our railroads creep at 
a snail's pace. We build ten miles while other Western States build 
one hundred. In every department of life we feel the paralysis. In- 
stead of bounding forward, buoyant, strong, and rejoicing, we sit with 
dull eyes and heavy spirits, and listen to the tick of the death watch. 

" These are the bitter fruits of the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise — a base and wrongful deed — that will bring a hell of bitter 
self-reproaches to its authors. Missouri did not demand that repeal. 
The South never asked it. Atchison solicited it, and in a moment of 
political insanity the South consented to the wrong and made the wrong 
her own. This was the suicide of slavery. 

"Atchison and Stringfellow, with their Missouri followers, over- 
whelmed the settlers in Kansas, browbeat and bullied them, and took 
the Government from their hands. Missouri voters elect the present 
body of men who insult public intelligence and popular rights by styling 
themselves ' the Legislature of Kansas.' This body of men are helping 
themselves to fat speculations by locating ' the seat of Government,' 
and getting town lots for their votes. They are passing laws disfran- 
chising all citizens of Kansas who do not believe negro slavery to be 
a Christian institution and a national blessing. They are proposing to 
punish with imprisonment the utterance of views inconsistent with 
their own, and they are trying to perpetuate their preposterous and 
infernal tyranny by appointing for a term of years creatures of their 
own, as commissioners in every county, to lay and collect taxes, and 
see that the laws they are passing are faithfully executed. Has this 
age anything to compare with these acts in audacity? 

******* 

" It has been a common opinion with thoughtless persons and thick- 
headed bullies of the West, that the Northern and Eastern men will 
not fight. Never was a greater mistake. The sons of New England 
and of the Middle States do not like to fight. They would rather 
work, plough, build towns, railroads, make money and raise families, 
than fight. But fight they will, if need be. Remember, the sons of 
New England shed the first blood in the American Revolution ; and 
they were last to furl their flags in that terrible struggle. They have 
never disgraced their community by cowardice, and they will not. 
They are Americans, with spirit, courage, endurance, and deep love 
of liberty to animate them. The Free-State men in Kansas will fight 
before they will be disfranchised and trampled on. Mark the word. 

" Here comes, then, the suicide of slavery. The outrages com- 
mitted by Atchison and his followers in subjugating Kansas to non- 



l6o THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

resident rule, will bring on a collision, first in Congress and then in 
Kansas ; and who shall tell the end? 

" Slavery will never sustain itself in a border State by the sword. It 
may conquer in some respects, but it can never ' conquer a peace.' 
Never! never! Once light the fires of internecine war in defense of 
slavery, and it will perish while you defend it. Slave-holders will not 
stay to meet the fight. Property is timid, and the slaves will be sent 
to Texas to be in a ' safe place ' while the fight lasts ; and as soon as the 
slaves are gone it will be found that Missouri has nothing to fight 
about, and the fight will end ' before it begins ! ' 

"Thus the slavery propagandists who repealed the Missouri Com- 
promise to make Kansas a slave State will make Missouri free ; and 
in endeavoring to expel abolition from Kansas, they will fill both 
Kansas and Missouri with an entire free white population, worth more 
to the two States than all the negroes in America. 

" Is not the Kansas outrage the suicide of slavery? Have not the 
people of Missouri, interested in the preservation of slavery in the 
State, brought themselves into a desperate predicament by following 
the insane counsels of Atchison and Stringfellow? " 

So general was the condemnation of the conduct of the 
Slave-State party and of the Administration, that the indig- 
nation of the North was again aroused and emigration set in 
with renewed vigor. 

In some respects the season of 1855 was the most dis- 
heartening of any in the history of the struggle. On the 
surface all was dark for freedom. The government, both 
local and national, was in possession of the enemy, and how 
it could be secured by the bona fide settlers was unknown. 
While there was no thought on the part of the leading Free- 
State men of abandoning the field, it was impossible to dem- 
onstrate to the isolated settlers an immediate way out. The 
situation, as viewed by one person, may be seen by a letter 
quoted by Professor Spring in his " Kansas," page 61. He 
says: 

" November ist, 1855, Dr. Robinson wrote A. A. Lawrence, 
reviewing somewhat in detail the progress of events up to that time. 
' We must be as independent and self-reliant and confident,' he said, 
' as the Missourians are, and never, in any instance, be cow-ed into 
silence or subserviency to their dictation. This course on the part of 



SEASON OF 1855. 161 

prominent Free-State men is absolutely necessary to inspire the masses 
with confidence, and keep them from going over to the enemy. * * * 
I have been censured for the defiant tone of my Fourth of July speech, 
but I was fully convinced that such a course was demanded. The 
Legislature was about sitting, and Free-State men were about despairing. 
* * * A few of us dared to take a position in defiance of the Legis- 
lature, and meet the consequences. We were convinced that our success 
depended upon this measure, and the demonstration of the Fourth was 
to set the ball in motion in connection with Conway's letter to Governor 
Reeder, resigning his seat and repudiating the Legislature. For a while 
we had to contend with opposition from the faint-hearted, but by per- 
severing in our course, by introducing resolutions into conventions and 
canvassing the Territory, repudiation became universal with Free-State 
men. * * * We conceived it important to disown the Legislature, 
if at all, before w^e knew the character of its laws, believing they would 
be such as to crush us out if recognized as valid, and believing we 
should stand on stronger ground if we came out in advance. * * * 
The first of July forms an important epoch in our history. It was 
about that time that open defiance was shown our enemies. * * * 
Pro-slavery bullies were daily in the streets, and insulted all Free- 
State men who they supposed would make no resistance. This drove 
our people into secret organization of self-defense, and it was not long 
before they were glad to cry for quarter. A Free-State Missourian, a 
regular California bully, came among us and took them in their own 
way, and frightened every pro-slavery man from the field. His name 
is David Evans ; and if I had a Sharp's rifle at my disposal, I should 
make him a present of it. * * * Xq divide into parties before our 
admission into the L^nion would be ruinous, and give our enemies the 
advantage." 

The effect of the invasion and legislation upon the country 
may be seen from the following extracts from leading jour- 
nals of that time : 

" THE BLACK LAW IN KANSAS. 

" In another column will be found a transcript of a law recently 
passed by the Lower House of the Kansas Legislature, in regard to the 
' better protection of slave property.' We invite the attention of Mis- 
sourians especially, and in fact the whole people of the United States, 
to its bloody provisions, whereby the life of a white man is made of 
less consequence and value than the service of a negro slave. Our 
correspondent, writing from Kansas, speaking of its provisions, says 
that, ' in utter disregard of the natural rights of free speech and thought, 
11 



1 62 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

it is only paralleled by one thing in all past history.' Many acts more 
severe in provisions, and more proscriptive as regards opinions, have 
been passed, and even the resolution not to have the law printed has 
been more than equalled in the past. A Roman emperor is said to 
have written his edicts so fine, and hung them so high, that people 
could not read them, and thereupon to have glutted his appetite for 
blood to the uttermost upon the unconscious violators. This, we think, 
fully parallels the decision of the Kansas Legislature not to print their 
Draconian code on the subject of slave property. To the twelfth sec- 
tion, however, it is our purpose at present to call more especial atten- 
tion. It reads as follows : 

" ' Sec. 12. If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or 
maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in the Territory, 
or shallintroduce into Kansas, print, publish, write, circulate, or cause 
to be introduced into the Territory, any book, paper, magazine, pam- 
phlet, or circular containing any denial of the rights of persons to hold 
slaves in this Territory, such person shall be deemed guilty of felony, 
and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term not less than 
two years.' 

" This is neither more nor less than making a difference of opinion 
upon a constitutional question a penitentiary offense. It establishes the 
prison and the pillory as the arbiter of constitutional law in preference 
to the judiciary of the land, and makes the human mind square its 
convictions to the ideas of a few accidentally elected legislators. The 
' procrustean bed ' has been a myth heretofore ; it promises soon to be 
a shamble and a slaughter-house in reality. Men are no longer to be 
permitted in the new Territory to express abstract opinions upon moral 
questions without suffering the ignominious penalties of a State peni- 
tentiary, and this is what is called opening the Territories to the people 
of a whole Union, and admitting all persons to the enjoyment of its 
fair lands. Squatter sovereignty was much lauded by General Cass 
and Mr. Douglas in the outset, and yet, under this phase of it, both 
Mr. Douglas and Cass would be sent to the State prison if they dared 
to utter in Kansas Territory what they have repeatedly said in glowing 
language in the Senate of the United States. 

" In regard to this law, we have but few words to say, and they may 
be said very briefly. We are in favor of the protection of slave prop- 
erty and the rights of slave-holders, where slavery exists, by all laws 
and statutes that can be enforced, and that human intelligence does not 
revolt at. But this is none such. It could not be enforced, as was 
well said in the debate on its passage, even in South Carolina, much 
less in Kansas. It is foolish in operation, and will prove reactionary. 
Massachusetts assuredly destroyed the Know-Nothing party in the 
United States by the ultra course of her Legislature — by ignoring the 



PUBLIC SENTIMENT. 1 63 

Fugitve Slave Law — and by enacting the Personal Liberty bill. The 
result, too, will prove that the Kansas Legislature has done more to 
destroy the prospect of making that Territory a slave State by its ill- 
tempered, senseless, school-boy legislation, and by the enactments of 
the present ' Black Laws,' than could have been effected by all the 
cohorts of the Emigrant Aid Society, or by all the zeal of Northern 
fanatical divines." — Missouri Democrat. 



"THE GATHERING STORM. 

"The clouds now rising upon the Western horizon are dark and 
portentous. Almost every mail from Kansas brings intelligence of 
the approaching struggle between slavery and the Constitution — a 
struggle which may be decided in blood. It would be useless to shut 
our eyes to the signs which seem to indicate an appeal to arms at no 
distant day. The crisis may be arrested, but only by exercise of a 
wisdom, moderation, and firmness by the Administration, which cannot 
reasonably be expected. The high-handed, unconstitutional, and ag- 
gressive acts already performed or proposed in the ruffian Legislature 
of Kansas conclusively show that despotism intends to wage uncom- 
promising war upon the Constitution. Read the account in our paper 
to-day of the measures which have been introduced or proposed. The 
intended enactments of the mob Legislature of Kansas, we venture to 
say, can never be enforced. They are unwarranted by the Constitution 
of the United States, and therefore are not obligatory. Where does 
the Legislature of Kansas obtain the constitutional power to pass a law 
requiring a citizen emigrating from any State into that Territory to take 
an oath of allegiance to support the laws of the United States, and 
those which may be enacted by their own irresponsible body? Whence 
do they obtain the power to make the oath of allegiance a qualification 
for the rights of suffrage? What clause of the Constitution allows the 
authorities of Kansas to use the jails of Missouri for the punishment of 
offenders? Oh, the beauties of squatter sovereignty! Every day 
reveals more clearly the supreme ridiculousness of the miserable farce. 
There seems to be but one course to be pursued to prevent a civil war. 
The organization of the Territory should be begun at once, and the 
present miscalled Legislature to enact laws for Kansas must be chosen 
by the people of the Territory, not by an invading army from Missouri! 
This is the only course which will prevent collisions which may end in 
blood. The people of that Territory never will bow to the unconstitu- 
tional edicts of this mob-elected Legislature ; they never will recognize 
it as a legislative body ; and they will be acting right in the sight of 
God and of the country. Unless the general Government exercises 
authority in the matter to sustain the settlers in the assertion of their 



164 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

just rights, a few more weeks may see civil war raging in all its horrors 
upon the soil of Kansas." — Boston Joiintal. 

" From this time it will be seen that the bill whereby the Kansas 
solons enacted that all officers in the Territory, for the term of six 
years ensuing, should be filled by the present Legislature, has become 
a law, and we are free to say that a more infamous invasion of the rights 
of any people, a more unwarranted assumption of power not delegated, 
was never perpetrated by any assembly that ever sat even in revolution- 
ary France. Not content with legislating themselves into ofhce in 
violation of the organic law of the Territory; not satisfied with denying 
to the inhabitants and citizens of Kansas the constitutional rights of 
free speech and a free press ; but beyond and above all this, they nov,- 
quietly inform the people that they, the Legislature, will now undertake 
to appoint, of their own free will and accord, the sheriffs, constables, 
attorneys, tax-assessors, and all local officers, not for the coming year, 
or until an election can be held by the citizens, but for six years from 
the present time." — Missouri Democrat. 

" HELLISH. 

" The above is harsh — almost an impious caption — but if the act does 
not deserve it, then we confess that we do not know how to head an 
article. If the freemen of the North submit to this without a murmur ; 
if this does not arouse them to action against the slave power, then they 
deserve to be slaves. If this does not stir the freemen of Kansas up 
to civil war, then they deserve to wear the chains that the representa- 
tives of the Missouri mob have forged upon them. From the Federal 
Government we can expect nothing, while the cut-throat crew of Atchi- 
son and Stringfellow can command and the Government obeys with 
alacrity. The present Administration is the meanest despotism that 
ever disgraced the face of the earth, and its governors and judges will 
make law, as far as their sanction goes, of such damnable acts as this. 
The life of a free white man is thus made cheaper than the service of a 
negro slave! And to say that slavery is not right — to say that men 
have no right to hold slaves, is made a criminal offense, punishable 
with two years' imprisonment at hard labor! — it makes our blood boil 
to read such things. We shall rejoice when the first gun is fired in civil 
war in Kansas. Outraged, robbed, insulted, condemned to death for 
following the dictates of humanity ; imprisonment for uttering manly 
words of truth, and all to please the slave power! Great God! Why 
is language so powerless ! Why cannot we find words to express the 
thoughts and feelings that throng our heart and brain at such time as 
this? They pass the act, but they refuse to publish it; they condemn 
men to death and imprisonment for certain acts and words, but refuse 



PUBLIC EXPRESSIONS, 165 

to make known in a legal way what those acts and words are. The 
act elicited some debate, but passed almost unanimously." — Galesbnrg 
{III.) Democrat. 

"THE CRISIS IN KANSAS. 

" It is madness to suppose that any community of American citizens 
will submit to such tyranny as this. If tlie settlers in Kansas do not 
resist the enforcement of such laws to the last extremity — if they hesi- 
tate an instant to take up arms, if need be, against the dastardly tyrants 
who seek thus to trample their freedom under foot, and to spill the last 
drop of their blood rather than be thus degraded and conquered, they 
are unworthy of their name and descent. The provocation of our fore- 
fathers to Revolution was trifling compared with that which these 
Kansas settlers have experienced. And to this issue the matter must 
come, if the pro-slavery madmen persist in the measure by which they 
have thus far sought the accomplishment of their schemes. We are 
confident the people of Kansas will not submit to the domination of 
their invaders. They will resist the execution of the pretended laws. 
They will not permit their enforcement against a single inhabitant, and 
if their execution be attempted by force, it will be resisted by force, and 
then the issue will be one of simple strength. 

" Under such a menacing state of affairs, it would seem natural to 
invoke the interposition of the Federal Executive. But the Adminis- 
tration at Washington seems to have been as thoroughly conquered by 
the Missouri invaders as the people of Kansas themselves. President 
Pierce seems to be as completely under the control of Atchison and 
Stringfellow as the myrmidons they marshal to the Kansas polls. It is 
idle, therefore, to hope for aid from this quarter. The people of Kan- 
sas must rely upon themselves for the defense of their liberties and the 
protection of their rights. And if they are compelled to encounter the 
weight of the Federal Government in their contest, they must appeal 
from that to the people. They can trust to the justice of their cause for 
final victory." — N'ew York Times. 

" KANSAS. 

" When the affairs of Kansas were forcibly interfered with by in- 
truders from Missouri, we could not, in the face of the evidence estab- 
lishing the fact, deny its existence, or even justify it, because it had 
been provoked by an almost as criminal interference upon the part of 
the abolition Emigrant Aid Company of the East. We then expressed 
the opinion that the acts of the Missourians would be prejudicial to the 
South, placing it in a false position, and making it the violator of laws 
which it is specially interested in upholding for its own protection. 
The course pursued by the Kansas Legislature is already confirming 



1 66 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

what we then predicted. Its ultra radicalism upon all subjects that call 
into exercise its legislative functions, and the violence with which it 
proscribes opinions not squaring with the ideas of its leaders, have 
already made it a disgrace to the country, and thrown upon the cause 
which it pretends to uphold an enormous degree of responsibility. An 
instance of this is seen in a bill on the subject of slavery, which passed 
without opposition. 

" Laws of this complexion, which undertake to punish as a penal 
offense differences of opinion, can but have one effect, and that is to 
provoke opposition, to keep alive excitement, and ultimately to secure 
their own repeal by the very strength of the objection they put in the 
mouths of their opponents." — Baltimore American. 

" The free-soilers have determined to appoint a government of their 
own; have disowned all obedience to the territorial Government 
existing ; have determined to elect a delegate to Congress through their 
own organization, and leave it to that abolitionized body to determine 
between it and the law of the land ; and, finally, have determined to 
hold a convention for the purpose of framing a Constitution, and pre- 
senting themselves (a poor minority of the settlers of Kansas) for 
admission into the Union as a free-soil State. 

" The plan is one of those astute contrivances that could not have 
originated on the frontiers. It bears the marks of Seward on every 
section of it, and the object is to transfer the power of the Territories 
over their domestic laws to the House of Representatives at Washing- 
ton, where the revolutionary doings of a band of incendiaries, it is 
hoped, will be treated by their brother fanatics as the 'Higher Law.' " 
— Charleston (6". C.) Ulcrcnry. 

" CONDITION OF THINGS IN KANSAS. 

" The enormous outrages that have been perpetrated in Kansas 
during the last six or eight months, are a disgrace to the country and 
the age in which we live. Furthermore, the excesses that have been 
committed there in violation of law, order, and decency, with the pas- 
sive sanction of the Federal Government, will most assuredly be the 
means of defeating the object which the authors of the bill had exclu- 
sively in view — the organization of Kansas as a slave State. Messrs. 
Atchison, Stringfellow, and the Missouri borderers generally, have 
gone a little too far in their foray, and a time of retribution is soon to 
follow. We notice that a reaction has already commenced ; however 
perverted and misdirected popular sentiment may become for a season, 
under the influence of violence, and the guidance and example of prom- 
inent but unscrupulous leaders, it is sure in the end to correct itself. 
The worst men, unless living entirely isolated, and beyond the soothing 



STATEMENTS OF THE PRESS. 167 

reach of civilization and association, cannot persist for any length of 
time in an uninterrupted course of violence and profligate disregard of 
all moral and civil obligation. The ruffians who are now committing 
these lawless excesses in Kansas must in time become satiated, and 
then mollified ; and a resort to the refuge of the law will become a 
necessity to insure even an existence among themselves, for the exist- 
ence of society is based upon the supremacy of the laws, and upon no 
other safe foundation. 

" But in the meantime who can estimate the mischief, irreparable it 
may be, that these acts of lawless violence have already produced ; 
the deep-seated hatred between contending factions on the spot, the 
sectional animosities, the bitter jealousies, the revilings and vitupera- 
tion, criminations and recriminations, all of which are tending to sever 
social and fraternal ties, and ultimately, perhaps, to break asunder the 
bonds of Union! 

"There is a grave responsibility resting upon the authors of the 
present state of disorganization in Kansas, and of the prospective trouble 
which is to ensue from this condition of things. 

" No one can justify, or even extenuate, the outrages and violation, 
not merely of law, but of those conventional observances which exist 
in the most rude and primitive societies, which have been disgracing a 
Territory under United States Government for the past six months. 
But this negative condemnation is not enough ; there should be direct 
and emphatic denunciation of this condition of affairs. The class of 
citizens who are friends of law and order, who deprecate the supremacy 
of mobs and lawless assemblages, and who desire to see the people 
exercise freely and peaceably the rights and privileges to which they 
are entitled, should set their faces against this domination of reckless 
and irresponsible power. 

" We have seen, read, and heard enough of rows and mobs to hold 
them in special abhorrence. Of all domestic evils, they are the most 
to be deprecated ; they disorganize society, injure reputation, private 
and public interests. The places where they prevail and are tolerated 
are plague-spots, which all peaceably disposed citizens and good men 
should avoid. 

" The immediate consequences of the revolutionary condition of 
Kansas have been almost entirely to check emigration. The people of 
the free States do not choose to jeopardize their lives in a land cursed 
by mob law, and ruled by reckless bullies ; the people of the slave 
States are averse to peril their title to their slaves in a Territory where 
the free-soil element so extensively prevails, and where there is no 
security of property. Another consequence of these violent proceed- 
ings, carried on under the sanction of the law, is, that they are having 
the effect of alienating the friends of the South in the Northern States. 



1 68 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

We could quote the strictures of some of the most moderate and con- 
servative journals in the free States upon outrageous legislation of the 
present hybrid Legislature of Kansas, which journals have been uni- 
formly sustaining the cause of the South against the formidable com- 
bination of party which have arrayed against us and them. Some of 
the laws passed by the Kansas Legislature are so outrageously pro- 
scriptive and violent, and so disgraceful in character, that the most 
tolerant and forbearing of the Northern press cannot suppress their 
indignation, but are compelled to give it utterance." — A'cia Orleans 
Bulletin. 

"THE BATTLE GROUND. 

" We can perceive no reason why we of the North should appropriate 
to ourselves the whole terror and dread of war. We cannot tell why 
the whole weight of its heaviest strokes will be for us ; albeit our 
Southern friends evidently so regard it. We have more charcoal than 
they have ; we have more saltpetre ; we have more brimstone ; we have 
more lead ; we have more bone and blood, and nerve and muscle. 
Will they have a trial by these? Are they ready for it? Are they 
eager for the clinch of death? Let them beware! To insult and con- 
tumely long continued they have added monstrous and unthought-of 
perfidy, and now into the edge of that deep, slow-healing wound of our 
abused faith, they will drive the sting of open and outrageous violence. 
There is a time to stop. If at length force must end that struggle — by 
a swift and terrible blow will it then be ended. 

"We hope not for this; we shall do all we can to avert it; but 
slavery will not get Kansas so. We are afraid that the ominous look 
of things is keeping away emigrants who ought to go there. If it 
were sure to become a slave State we would advise no freeman to seek 
his home there. No freeman could find one. But this is not certain, 
not in our view probable. A struggle there will be, and no man ought 
to go there who fears one. There will be a call for sacrifice and self- 
denial ; but sacrifice and self-denial pay. 

" The natural resources of Kansas, various and ample as they are, 
may not be superior to those of other sections of the West — but, while 
the great streams of emigration will doubtless take their direction 
mainly to the facilities offered for procuring a subsistence and for gain- 
ing wealth, we yet hope that among those now leaving us there will be 
found many with whom the wealth of the world is not all its worth, 
nor the ease of life its end ; many who will not hold it a small thing 
that in a most important and critical time they are thus allowed to aid 
in rearing those institutions, civil, social, and religious, to whose benign 
working themselves owe so much. Such men, and none but such, are 
needed in Kansas. Far more is to depend on the thoroughness of 



STATE CONSTITUTION. l6g 

character of the first free settlers, than on number. The danger of 
acquiescence is greater than the danger of overthrow. We say, then, 
to whoever is about deciding in this matter — if you are conscious of no 
higher motive than love of gain, don't go to Kansas — you may grow 
rich there, but you are likely enough to wish to do it by slave labor ; 
if you desire only to live easily, don't go — sleepy men are not needed 
there now ; if you want courage and moral firmness, don't go — proud, 
angry men will look you in the eyes there ; if you believe liberty to be 
sweet only as you have it, and justice sacred only as it guards your 
rights, don't go — self-sufficient, self-seeking men sprout out of the 
ground anywhere ; if you have a longing for office and favor, if you 
suppose yourself to possess the attributes of a postmaster, don't go — 
you may not be good for anything anywhere else, but then don't go to 
Kansas ; if, on the contrary, you can take with you the mind and 
strength of a man, and the generous heart and life of a freeman, go — 
there is no better place in all the world for you." — Springfield (A/ass.) 
Republican. 

When it became evident that the Legislature would be en- 
dorsed by the territorial judiciary and the President, and 
that there would be no escape by election for at least two 
years, it was equally evident that some means must be de- 
vised to keep the settlers from abandoning the fight. While 
the majority of the Free-State party were anti-slavery from 
conviction, and would stand out against a slave State to the 
bitter end, a large minority were indifferent to the question 
of slavery, and had been driven to act with the Free-State 
party because of the invasion of their own civil and politi- 
cal rights. Under these circumstances it was deemed expe- 
dient to agitate the question of a State constitution. Such 
a movement would serve to occupy the minds of the people, 
attract the attention of ambitious politicians, become a rally- 
ing point for all opposed to the usiu-pation, and, in case of 
necessity, when all other means of self-preservation should 
fail, be used as a de facto government, even though not rec- 
ognized by Congress. This step was taken with caution. 
Influential Free-State men were consulted, especially Reeder, 
Coates, Deitzler, and the staunch anti-slavery men of con- 
viction. Lane, at that time, had not cast his lot fully with 



lyo THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the Free-State men, although the failure of his Democratic 
convention had disgusted him with that venture. It was 
known that he had recognized the legality of the Legislatiu-e, 
and contemplated getting a divorce by its action. How- 
ever, at an interview with several active Free-State men, he 
said if those present would agree to support him for one of 
the Senators under the constitution, he would enlist in the 
movement. He was assured that if his labors should be 
worthy of such a position he should have it. Accordingly, at 
the convention of the 14th of August, 1855, this, among 
other resolutions, was adopted : 

"5. That we consider the attempt to establish a territorial form of 
government in this Territory as an utter failure ; and that the people 
of the Territory should, at some convenient period, assemble at their 
several places of holding elections in the various districts of the Terri- 
tory, and elect delegates to a convention to form a State constitution 
for the State of Kansas, with the view to an immediate State organiza- 
tion, and application, at the next session of Congress, for admission 
into the American Union, as one of the States of the American Con- 
federacy." 

While Colonel Lane opposed the resolution repudiating the 
Legislature as a body, he favored this resolution and moved 
its adoption. General Pomeroy thought the action prema- 
ture, as he would prefer to know the wishes of the new 
Governor appointed to fill Governor Reeder's place. When 
the resolutions were first introduced by the committee, of 
which Robinson was chairman, several politicians opposed 
them, but after adjournment over night they had all received 
new light, as they said, and the resolutions were adopted 
without opposition. A mass meeting was called on the 
15th, without distinction of party, and recommended a con- 
vention to be held at Topeka, September 19th, to take this 
matter of a constitutional convention into consideration and 
to provide for one if thought best. 

Although several conventions had been held at Lawrence, 
and resolutions adopted without number, it was concluded 



BIG SPRINGS CONVENTION. 171 

to call a general convention of the Free-State party at Big 
Springs, September 5, 1855. The call was made by the con- 
vention of the 14th of August, held at Lawrence, and the 
notices were spread broadcast over the Territory. This con- 
vention was well attended, and nearly all the leading Free- 
State men were present in consultation, including the Free- 
State executive committee. Judge G. W. Smith was made 
president of the convention. Two important reports were 
made, one by Colonel Lane, as chairman of the committee 
on platform, and one by J. S. Emery, as chairman of the 
committee on the Legislature. The latter report was drawn 
by Governor Reeder. 

The report on platform was substantially a repetition of 
reports at previous conventions held at Lawrence, except 
with reference to free negroes and abolitionists. It took 
strong ground against both, and proposed not to interfere 
with slave States or fugitive slaves. The report drawn by 
Governor Reeder was most emphatic in its denunciation of 
the Territorial Legislature. Among the resolutions are the 
following : 

^^ Resolved, That we owe no allegiance or obedience to the tyrannical 
enactments of this spurious Legislature — that their laws have no validity 
or binding force upon the people of Kansas, and that every freeman 
among us is at full liberty, consistently with all his obligations as a 
citizen and a man, to defy and resist them, if he chooses so to do. 

"Resolved, That we will resist them primarily by every peaceable 
and legal means within our power, until we can elect our own Repre- 
sentatives and sweep them from the statute book ; and as the majority 
of our Supreme Court have so far forgotten their official duty — have so 
far cast off the honor of the lawyer and the dignity of the judge as to 
enter clothed with the judicial ermine into partisan contest, and by an 
extra-judicial decision giving opinions in violation of all propriety, 
have prejudged our case before we could be heard, and have pledged 
themselves to these outlaws in advance, to decide in their favor, we 
will therefore take measures to carry the question of the validity of 
these laws to a higher tribunal, where judges are unpledged and dispas- 
sionate — where the law will be administered in its purity, and where 
we can at least have the hearing before the decision. 

"Resolved, That we will endure and submit to these laws no longer 



172 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

than the best interests of the Territory require, as the less of two evils, and 
will resist them to a bloody issue as soon as we ascertain that peaceable 
remedies shall fail, and forcible resistance shall furnish any reasonable 
prospect of success ; and that in the meantime we recommend to our 
friends throughout the Territory the organization and discipline of vol- 
unteer companies and the procurement and preparation of arms. 

"Resolved, That we cannot, and will not, quietly submit to surrender 
our great 'American birthright ' — the elective franchise ; which, first by 
violence, and then by chicanery, artifice, weak and wicked legislation, 
they have so effectually succeeded in depriving us of, and that with 
scorn we repudiate the ' Election Law ' so-called — and will not meet 
with them on the day they have appointed for the election — but will our- 
selves fix upon a day, for the purpose of electing a delegate to Con- 
gress." 

At this convention Governor Reeder was nominated for 
delegate to Congress, to be voted for on the second Tues- 
day of October, instead of the day fixed by the Legislature. 
He accepted the nomination and delivered a speech that set 
the convention wild with enthusiasm. Perhaps no conven- 
tion was ever held of greater importance, or that so ce- 
mented the people of all shades of political views, except 
pro-slavery. One dissenting voice, and one only, was heard, 
and that was by Charles Stearns, the Garrisonian. As he 
was the only representative of that party in Kansas, and 
as that party now claims to have been instrumental in 
saving Kansas and abolishing slavery, his letter to the Free 
State of September 24th, is given : 

" Lawrence, September 13, 1855. 

" Messrs. Editors: In your paper just issued, I notice the follow- 
ing remark : 

" ' The platform is such as every Free-State man can stand upon, 
and, so far as we have learned, gives eminent satisfaction to all, except 
those who desire division in our ranks.' 

" Of course, then, you will set me down as one who ' desires division 
in our ranks ' — for rather than be satisfied with such a platform, I 
would submit to martyrdom. It fills me with grief and astonishment, 
and, if I am not mistaken, will render the party adopting it a by-word 
and reproach in the mouths of the nation. 

" All sterling anti-slavery men, here and elsewhere, cannot keep from 



BOLT OF A GARRISONIAN. 1 73 

spitting upon it ; and all pro-slavery people must, in their hearts, per- 
fectly despise the base sycophants who originated and adopted it. 

" If such is the manliness of the ' Free-State' party, commit me to 
the slave-drivers themselves, for, much as I abhor them, I do not so 
thoroughly despise them as I do a party that will ' make the welkin 
ring ' about its anti-slavery principles, and then crawl, in the lowest 
dust, at the feet of the slave power. I can and do apologize for a pro- 
slavery man who has been educated under the influence of slavery, and 
sincerely believes that slavery is right ; but for Northern men, who 
know better, to tell the South they are their most humble servants, and 
are willing to concede to them the right to buy and sell human beings, 
and to pursue with blood-hounds the panting fugitive, is perfectly 
infernal. 

" If this is the platform the Free-State party are going to occupy, 
God forbid that I should ever stand upon its rotten planks. 

" I do not wish to multiply words on this occasion, but merely ask, 
as a personal favor, that you will publish this renunciation of what I 
can no longer look upon but as a base pro-slavery party fully equal in 
depravity to either the Whig or Democratic parties. 

" Yours, for genuine anti-slavery, 

" Chas. Stearns." 

Upon this the editor comments as follows : 

"The author of the above communication is the only man in the 
Territory that is so thoroughly disgusted with the Free-State platform. 
It is due the author, however, to state that he is a Garrisonian aboli- 
tionist of the deepest dye — a class of men who imagine the Union con- 
ceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, and therefore have no 
participation in its affairs. It is also due the public to state that the 
platform was not drafted for any such class of men, but for the Free- 
State party, and we would be just as much surprised to find them en- 
dorse it as we would be if Stringfellow and Atchison should endorse it." 

Henry C. Wright, the non-resistant abolitionist, said he 
would not cast his vote for a President though he knew that 
vote would free all the slaves in the country, simply because 
the Government was based upon force ; and so Mr. Stearns 
would not act with the Free-State party because in some 
particular it did not meet his views. He could not stoop in 
the least, even to conquer in one of the most important en- 
counters of the age. Many of the Free-State men had no 



174 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

sympathy with the black law or fugitive slave law, neither 
were they afraid of abolition or abolitionists, but it was well 
known that many Western and Southern Free-State men did 
care for these things, and as these were not the issue then 
before the people, they were willing to accept the platform 
without opposition. It would be time enough to attend to 
such matters when the absorbing question of a free State 
should be settled. Eli Thayer, as he has often said, looked 
upon the struggle in Kansas as the entering wedge in the 
conflict for the overthrow of slavery in the nation. Free- 
dom once planted in Kansas would spread east and south 
in accordance with the popular sovereignty of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, till not a slave should be found in any State. 
This was the view of the agents of the Aid Company and 
many others who came to Kansas from the North and East. 
If this view should prove to be right, it was immaterial 
whether a resolution should be adopted in favor of a black 
law or not, or against abolitionists ; for, when the struggle 
should be ended, there would be no slavery, no fugitive 
slaves to be returned, no prejudice against free colored men, 
as all colored men would be free and abolitionists would dis- 
appear when there was no slavery to abolish. Hence, the 
most radical Free-State men cared for but the one issue — 
a free State. If the emigrants from the West and South 
wanted a resolution that the moon was made of cotton bales, 
or coils of hemp rope, and Charles Stearns wanted one that 
it was made of green cheese or Boston brown bread, they 
would quarrel with neither, so they were right upon the ques- 
tion at issue. John Brown, when he arrived a month later, 
was also disgusted with the Free-State party. Redpath, in 
his " Life of Captain John Brown," page 103, says: 

" The first time I heard of old Brown was in connection with a cau- 
cus at the town of Osawatomie. It was shortly after his arrival in the 
Territory. The politicians of the neighborhood were carefully pruning 
resolutions so as to suit every variety of anti-slavery extensionists ; and 
more especially that class of persons whose opposition to slavery was 



BOLT OF JOHN BROWN. 1 75 

founded on expediency — the selfishness of race, and caste, and interest ; 
men who were desirous that Kansas should be consecrated to free white 
labor only, not to freedom for all and above all. The resolution that 
aroused the old man's anger declared that Kansas should be a free 
white State, thereby favoring the exclusion of negroes and mulattoes, 
whether slave or free. He rose to speak, and soon alarmed and dis- 
gusted the politicians by asserting the manhood of the negro race, and 
expressing his earnest anti-slavery convictions with a force and vehe- 
mence little likely to suit the hybrids then known as Free-State Demo- 
crats. There were a number of emigrants from Indiana, I was told, 
whom his speech so shocked that they went over and remained in the 
pro-slavery party. This was John Brown's first and last appearance in 
a public meeting in Kansas." 

The convention called at Topeka on the 19th of Septem- 
ber met, decided to call a constitutional convention, and ar- 
ranged for the election of members on the 9th of October to 
meet at Topeka on the fourth Tuesday of the same month 
to frame a constitution. The committee appointed to take 
charge of this work, called the Territorial Executive Commit- 
tee, consisted of the following : J. H. Lane, chairman ; C. 
K. HoUiday, M. J. Parrott,' P. C. Schuyler, G. W. Smith, 
G. W. Brown, and J. K. Goodin, secretary. 

The Free-State Territorial Executive Committee, which 
superintended the affairs of that party, was : C. Robinson, 
chairman ; J. K. Goodin, secretary ; G. W. Smith, J. A, 
Wakefield, L. Macy, F. AV. Giles, William Phillips, C. A. 
Foster, J. P. Fox, J. D. Stockton, W. R. Vail, John Brown, 
Jr., W. A. Ely, G. F. Warren, John Hamilton, H. Smith, L. 
Smith, M. F. Conway, S. D. Houston, Dr. L. R. Adams, 
Dr. L. B. Palmer, J. E. Gould, Abelard Guthrie. 

Thus both committees had the same secretary, Joel K. 
Goodin. Mr. Goodin was perfectly fitted for secretary, 
and occupied that position on nearly all subsequent occasions 
of importance during the entire conflict. No man had a 
more sagacious or a cooler mind, and his counsel was in- 
valuable. He had the courage of his convictions, and stood 
ready to thwart any wild scheme, as will hereafter appear. 



176 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

The convention to frame the constitution met as provided, 
and the game of personal politics opened at once. The play 
was serio-comic from the first, often verging upon the tragic 
or ridiculous. The only officer of importance to be elected 
was president of the convention. To this position Colonel 
Lane, of com-se, aspired. As an evidence of his resources 
and pohtical ingenuity, he based his claims to the highest 
office in the gift of the members on a damaging scandal. 
He asked for votes as an endorsement and vindication of 
his character. The Free State of October 29th makes this 
comment : 

" It will be seen in another column that the constitutional convention 
has met and elected its officers. They, of course, put in the chair a 
certain individual, in order to counteract the effect of a true report that 
was abroad that might injure him, and as he declared that he would 
sink to hell rather than be defeated, we are rather afraid he will ' sink ' 
anyhow, notwithstanding his success." 

The members of the convention were at once divided into 
two factions, so far as aspiring politicians could divide them. 
One was called the conservative and the other the radical 
wing of the party. The first had headquarters at the Garvey 
House, and the second at the Chase House. Slate-making 
was at once inaugurated at the Garvey House, while the 
radicals at the Chase House accepted the situation with 
good-nature, as they were willing to forego all honors and 
emoluments of office if they could only secure a free State. 
That a visible line might be drawn in the convention, a reso- 
lution was introduced endorsing squatter sovereignty and 
Democracy generally. This was discussed each evening for 
some time with considerable display of old campaign litera- 
ture. Of course, no man who opposed this resolution could 
find a place on the Garvey House slate. A small segment 
of the members were thrown completely outside of all healthy 
political organization by voting for negro suffrage. Their 
names were R. H. Crosby, G. S. Hillyer, Amory Hunting, 
O. C. Brown, Richard Knight, Philip C. Schuyler, and C. 



DUEL. 177 

Robinson. Some of these, also, as if to make their poHtical 
damnation sure, voted to strike out the word " male " as well 
as " white " from the constitution. 

But Lane was not fully satisfied with his vindication by 
being elected president of the convention ; he must put a 
gag in every man's mouth. For this purpose a resort was 
had to "the code." One night, after all had retired in the 
attic of the Chase House, G. P, Lowry, ex-private secretary 
of Governor Reeder, appeared, said he had a challenge from 
Lane to fight a duel, and wanted Dr. Robinson to act as his 
second. Robinson, of course, was indignant that the Free- 
State cause should be tarnished by such transactions, and 
said it must not be permitted. He utterly detested duelling, 
knew nothing of the code, and would have nothing to do 
with it. He, however, thinking he could shame Lane out of 
the business, went to the Garvey House attic to see Lane. 
There he found him trembling with fear, or shaking with the 
ague, so as visibly to move the cot on which he lay. On 
being reproved for bringing disgrace upon the party, he said 
Lowry had been repeating the scandal about himself and 
Mrs. Lindsay, and he had determined to put a stop to it at 
once and forever. Notwithstanding Lane had gone to Rob- 
inson's house early in the morning and begged of him to as- 
sist in preventing Lindsay from shooting him, and though 
Robinson had endorsed a note to effect a settlement, yet 
now Lane would try to make believe there was nothing to 
the matter, and he was bound to stop all such talk. After 
dwelling upon the folly of such a course, saying that if he 
should kill Lowry it would not stop the scandal nor vindi- 
cate him in public estimation, and if Lowry should kill him 
he would fare no better, Lane replied that he could do noth- 
ing about it, as Parrott was his second and the whole mat- 
ter was in his hands. After saying that he had come to him 
not at the instance of Lowry, as he was anxious to fight, 
Robinson left the attic of Lane and returned to his own. 
It was concluded to accept the challenge in due form, and 



178 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Major Robert Klotz was engaged to superintend the duel. 
The fight was to come off at eight o'clock in the morning, 
and the challenged party had nothing more to do but to 
await developments. He did not wait long till a messenger 
appeared and desired to change the hour from eight o'clock 
to eleven o'clock. This evidently was the beginning of a 
back-down, as the convention would be in session at that 
hour, and most likely Lane would have some friend posted 
to stop the duel. Lowry, however, accepted the change of 
time and kept his peace. The convention opened as usual, 
and the planets retained their accustomed orbits. About half 
an hour before the fatal moment, Lane took the floor on 
some unimportant question and went off in one of his windy 
harangues. He talked up to the time set for the duel, 
when he, with great dignity and solemnity, closed, took his 
hat, and started to leave for the bloody battle-field. In- 
stantly Judge Smith arose, in great apparent agitation, made 
the announcement that he had learned a hostile meeting was 
in contemplation, to which some members of the convention 
were parties, and he desired " to move the adoption of the 
following resolution," which had been previously prepared in 
due form. This resolution apparently created a great sensa- 
tion, and proposed to expel any member of the convention 
who would be a party to such meeting, either as principal 
or second. Of course it was unanimously adopted, but the 
duel was not yet off. Robinson, as he was a member of the 
convention, and was disposed to conform to the resolution, 
deputized J. F. Legate to act as second in his stead. Leg- 
ate was in his element, and demanded a fight or an igno- 
minious back-down and apology on the part of Lane. It is 
needless to say the apology and back-down came to the full 
satisfaction of the challenged party. This was the first and 
last duel in Kansas, so far as known, although Lane had 
fought a similar duel in a similar bloodless manner when 
a member of Congress, and he had another afterwards with 
Senator Douglas, who charged him with forgery and lying 



ADOPTION OF CONSTITUTION. I79 

when he presented the Topeka constitution to the Senate. 
Lane always had more or less solicitude about his reputation 
for valor. To vindicate his record in the Mexican war he 
had written a pamphlet, which he brought with him to Kan- 
sas. No one seemed to care about such matters except 
himself, but he evidently thought much ado about his honor 
and courage was necessary to secure the confidence of the 
people. 

Notwithstanding the slate-making, political harangues and 
duel, the convention completed its labors in about two 
weeks, and the members departed to their respective homes. 
Bank law and black law provisions were attached, to be voted 
upon separately, and all factions were harmonized. On the 
whole, the convention was a grand success. The constitu- 
tion itself was nothing remarkable, but answered all purposes 
for which it was made. Nothing could be more satisfactory 
than the interest it elicited among politicians. The Topeka 
State government in embryo had greater attractions for office- 
hunters than a full-fledged territorial government with officers 
appointed at Washington. Especially were the conservatives 
held as with hooks of steel, as they only would be eligible 
to office, the radicals having been already politically buried 
by common consent and with their own approval. They 
were safe to oppose the bogus Territorial Legislature and laws 
from principle, while the conservatives might need some 
other attraction than a mere free State. Hon. T. Dwight 
Thacher, who came to Kansas in 1857, in his address at the 
Quarter Centennial at Topeka, said : " If the question be 
asked what useful purpose the Topeka constitutional move- 
ment subserved, the obvious answer is that it served as a 
nucleus, the rallying point, the bond of union of the Free- 
State party during the most trying and dangerous period of 
our territorial history. Without it the Free-State forces must 
have drifted, been demoralized, and probably beaten. The 
prospects of success were sufficiently flattering to supplement 
the Free-State cause with the personal ambition of a large 



l8o THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

number of able men who would be called to official position 
under it." 

This constitution was to be voted for or against on De- 
cember 15, 1855, and, if adopted, State officers and a Legis- 
lature were to be elected January 15, 1856. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MURDER OF DOW. THE WAKARUSA WAR. MURDER 

AND BURIAL OF BARBER. 

The unanimity with which the constitutional movement 
was endorsed by the Free-State men of all shades and fac- 
tions gave good cause for alarm to the Slave-State party. 
" Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," and the indiffer- 
ence shown to the Territorial Legislature and its laws was the 
most terrible punishment that could be inflicted upon the in- 
vaders. War would be infinitely preferable to such a peace. 
Here were all the men of character and influence in the 
Territory except Stringfellow and a corporal's guard of his 
satellites adhering to the State movement. The Herald of 
Freedom, Tribune, Free State, Freeman, and all other Free- 
State journals were harmonized and earnestly at work. Then 
there were the correspondents of the Eastern press. The 
battle-field was the nation, and no step in advance could be 
taken in Kansas that would not be sustained in the North 
and East ; and there was no way to reach the people except 
through the papers read by them. At this time, when the 
constitution was framed or soon after, a corps of correspond- 
ents was found in Kansas unexcelled if equalled elsewhere. 
There was William A. Phillips, who must be admitted to 
have been the leader of them, not only on account of his 
ability and activity, but because of the great influence and 
power of the paper for which he wrote, the New York Tri- 
bune. No paper at that time had such influence with the 
masses of the people, the industrial classes, as the Tribune, 



I«2 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

and no man could speak with such authority as Horace 
Greeley. Equal in importance was the Missouri Democrat, 
published in the enemy's country. It is doubtful if Kansas 
could have been saved from the grasp of the invaders but for 
the hot shot poured into Atchison, Stringfellow and Company 
by this paper. James Redpath, the fearless, indomitable 
friend of the oppressed of all colors and all climes, was its cor- 
respondent. Neither he nor Phillips allowed any incident to 
escape attention, and if every outrage by the invaders and 
their accomplices was not so presented as to have the great- 
est possible effect upon readers, it was not for lack of will, 
but of ability ; and if any one had more ability in that line 
than these young correspondents, he had not appeared in 
Kansas, Other papers, perhaps of less circulation, had 
equally earnest, able, and efficient correspondents. There 
was Hutchinson, of the New York Times, S. C. Smith, S. F. 
Tappan, Ladd, Hinton, and Realf, of several New England 
and other papers, as well as many occasional correspondents. 
Besides correspondents, educators went among the people 
in person and preached the doctrine of salvation to Kansas 
from outrage. Thayer, of course, Avas always in the field, 
and his equal as the preacher of a crusade has not been seen 
since the time of Peter the Hermit. Reeder, Pomeroy, and 
Branscomb made raids in different parts of the country and 
struck most effective blows. 

Another agency must not be forgotten. The churches 
and clergy of the North and East enlisted with zeal in the 
work of raising men and means for the cause of free Kansas. 
As people would no longer take stock in the Aid Company 
as a business venture, the churches and people subscribed 
from considerations of patriotism or philanthropy. Hun- 
dreds of ministers were made stockholders by contributions 
from their churches, and a considerable amount of money 
was thus raised. Emigration revived in consequence of this 
agitation, and means were sent forward. Four aid com- 
panies' steam mills, of not less than twenty-five horse power 



MURDER OF DOW. 1 83 

each, landed at Kansas City, in the month of August, 1S55. 
In short, if pubhc sentiment was any criterion, the bogus 
territorial government was in a most precarious condition, 
and something must be done. What should it be ? If pos- 
sible, this carcass must be galvanized into life, and, also, if 
possible, these hated and once despised, but now feared, 
Free-State men must be brought in conflict with Federal 
authority and officials. As the Free-State men would do no 
wrong nor break any law, it was difficult to make a case. 
The most that could be charged to them was refusal to use 
the territorial machine, and denunciation and repudiation of 
the fraud. Not only by word of mouth, but in print through 
every Free-State paper, the settlers in the most emphatic and 
pointed terms defied and disowned the enactments of the so- 
called Legislature. By the time of the adjournment of the 
constitutional convention, in October, the bogus government 
had become a by-word and reproach, a stench in the nostrils 
of almost all the people. It was under these circumstances 
that a case was made to order. 

A pro-slavery man named Coleman killed a Free-State 
man named Dow at a place fifteen miles south of Lawrence, 
called Hickory Point, on Wednesday, November 21, 1855. 
The pretended reason for the killing of Dow by Coleman 
was a claim dispute, but the murder was evidently prear- 
ranged. Dow went to a blacksmith shop to have some work 
done, where he met some pro-slavery men. One of these 
had a wordy quarrel with Dow and threatened death with a 
musket, but did not fire. On his way home Coleman ap- 
peared, shot Dow with slugs, and left him to die alone in 
the middle of the road. 

This murder caused intense excitement in the neighbor- 
hood, extending to Lawrence. A meeting of citizens was 
held at the place of the murder on the 26th, and resolutions 
adopted denouncing the outrage in fitting terms. In the 
night after this meeting, the bogus sheriff, Jones, appeared 
with a posse of fifteen men at the house of Mr. Branson, the 



184 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

landlord of Dow, and in a violent and insulting manner took 
him away. The news of this arrest spread rapidly, and a 
force of about fifteen men gathered and intercepted the 
sheriff and prisoner at the house of J, B. Abbott. Colonel 
S. N. Wood, one of the rescuing party, in a letter to A. 
Wattles, dated August 29, 1857, thus describes the rescue: 

" Dear Sir: You request me to give you a history of the Branson 
rescue. At this late date it would be impossible for me to give you an 
exact history of that affair, but with pleasure I proceed to give you 
some facts connected with the rescue. 

" Charles Dow was from Ohio, from a Democratic family, his father, 
if not himself, having voted for Franklin Pierce for President. Dow 
was murdered on Wednesday, November 21, 1855. News of it came 
to Lawrence late Thursday evening. I felt much excited. Dow had 
come from an adjoining county in Ohio, had lived at my house in Kansas, 
and was a noble young man. Early Friday morning, in company with 
S. C. Smith, I drove to Hickory Point. We found that Coleman and 
others, charged with the murder of our friend, had fled to Missouri. 
Dow had just been buried, and a meeting agreed upon for Monday, the 
26th. With the promise of attending said meeting we returned to 
Lawrence. Monday, the 26th, again went to Hickory Point. S. F. 
Tappan was also present. Found a meeting already organized. S. N. 
Wood was appointed a committee to question witnesses. Some pro- 
slavery men attended said meeting. The testimony clearly indicated 
that Dow had been murdered, not out of personal feelings, but on 
account of his principles, and that others were to meet the same fate, 
in hopes thus of harassing the Free-State men, and to frighten us all 
out of Kansas. All parties present deprecated the murder. One hun- 
dred men or more attended the meeting, and a unanimous determina- 
tion was manifested to stop such murders. A committee on resolutions, 
of which S. N. Wood was chairman, presented a few resolutions regret- 
ting the outrages and resolving to do all in their power to search out 
the guilty parties and bring them to justice. The meeting lasted until 
almost sundown. Much feeling was manifested against Coleman, and 
a strong disposition exhibited to burn his house, which stood near. 
Three or four men broke down the door, rushed in, emptied a straw 
bed upon the floor, and fired it. S. C. Smith, S. N. Wood, and others 
rushed into the house, smothered the flames, clearing the house, and 
amid the greatest excitement, some crying, ' Burn the house,' and others 
interceding to save property. S. N. Wood jumped upon the fence and 
said murder, pillage, and arson were the peculiar avocations of our ene- 
mies, that houses were too scarce to be burned, and that this meeting 



RESCUE OF BRANSON. 185 

must not be disgraced in this way. Wood moved as the sense of the 
meeting that the house be not burned, which was carried unanimously, 
and the meeting quietly separated. 

" I set out with J. B. Abbott to return to Lawrence. It was very 
dark in the fore part of the evening. Losing our way we got belated, 
but finally, about ten or eleven o'clock, found our way to Blanton, where 
we were met and told that a large party of armed men had just passed 
towards Hickory Point. I immediately urged the necessity of follow- 
ing the party to ascertain if possible their business to Hickory Point. 
We finally adjourned to Abbott's for supper. After supper fresh horses 
were procured. One was sent up and down the Wakarusa to notify 
the settlers, two started upon foot to raise what Free-State settlers they 
could on the route and rendezvous near the old man Branson's, while 
Abbott and myself went to Hickory Point. Never shall I forget that 
seven miles' ride. Almost the whole distance was passed in silence. 
Just as we came to the timber I turned and inquired what we should 
do if we found the rascals at Branson's. Abbott replied, ' You are the 
leader; just what you say.' With tightened rein, revolvers in our 
hands, we galloped into the thicket, and in a moment were at the door 
of Branson's. Dismounting, I hastily inquired for Branson. His 
wife, an old lady, in choking accents replied, ' Twenty armed men have 
got him and gone.' ' Where? ' I asked. ' Towards Lawrence,' she 
replied, and at the same moment said they would ' murder him,' which 
I believed true, and sprang into the saddle, and to the inquiry, ' Where 
are you going? ' replied, ' To save your husband or die.' 

" In a few moments we were again upon the open prairie, moon up 
and bright. Different paths were examined, but no signs of horses 
having passed. For two long hours we galloped over the prairie from 
house to house, inquiring for passing horsemen, but could get no tidings 
of the party.* At last, discouraged and dispirited, fearing they had 
escaped altogether, we separated, Abbott to go to our rendezvous near 
Hickory Point, I to see a few more settlers and to hasten to Abbott's 
house — to stop any parties of friends en route for Hickory Point. I 
got to Abbott's in time to stop a party of a dozen, when we were soon 
joined by Abbott, who did not wait for the men on foot. A consulta- 
tion was called, and we were about sending messengers to the pro- 
slavery town of Franklin for information, when all at once some one 
announced, ' They are coming.' Pell-mell we rushed out of the house 
and got into the road ahead of them, they halting within two rods of us. 
A moment was passed in silence, when one of their party said, ' What's 
up?' Abbott asked, ' Is Mr. Branson there? ' Branson replied, ' Yes, 

* It turned out that the party left the road before getting out of the timber, and 
taking a circuitous route, went to a pro-slavery man's house a mile in an opposite 
direction and spent two hours in drinking and carousing. 



1 86 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

I am here a prisoner.' Said S. N. Wood, ' If you want to be among 
your friends come over here.' Said some of the opposite party, ' If you 
move we will shoot you.' Said Huffs (a Hoosier), ' Shoot and be 
d — d.' Said Wood to Branson, ' Come on, let them shoot if they want 
to,' and, turning to them, said, ' Gentlemen, shoot, and not a man of you 
shall leave alive.' Said Branson to us, ' I will do just as you say.' 
All hands on our side said, ' Come on.' Branson attempted to ride 
to us; he was on a mule. Says some one, ' Whose mule is that?' 
' Theirs,' says Branson. ' Get off of it,' said Wood, ' and let it go.' 
Branson dismounted. Wood left the ranks, kicked the old mule, and 
told it to go back among its friends. Guns were aimed and cocked upon 
both sides, but just as Branson left one of the opposite party lowered 
his gun with the remark, ' I ain't going to shoot.' Jones then advanced 
upon horseback, said his name was Jones, that he was Sheriff of 
Douglas County, Kansas, that he had a warrant to arrest the old man 
Branson, and he must serve it. He was told that we knew of no Sheriff 
Jones ; that we knew of a postmaster at Westport, Missouri, by that 
name, but knew of no Sheriff Jones. We told him that we had no 
Douglas County in Kansas, and what was better, we never intended 
to have. But we told him if he must arrest Branson, to go at it. Jones 
still said he had a warrant to arrest him, and must do it. S. N. Wood 
said he was Branson's attorney ; that if he had a warrant to arrest 
him he wanted to see it, and see if it was all right. Jones said he 
had it, but refused to show it. Wood asked him if it had been read 
or shown to Branson. Jones admitted it had not, when he was told 
that, until he produced the warrant, Branson could not go with him. 
An hour at least was spent in parleying, when Jones and Company 
bid our party good-night and left. Our party immediately organized. 
S. N. Wood was elected captain ; S. C. Smith, lieutenant. The 
following persons were present at the time the rescue took place : S. 
N. Wood, J. B. Abbott, Daniel Jones, Philip Hupp, Miner Hupp, 
Philip Hutchinson, Harrison Nichols, Jonathan Kenneday, Elmore 
Allen, Carlos Halloway, Rev. Julius Elliot, John Smith, Edward Curias, 
Wm. Mears, A. Rowley — just fifteen of us. We had eight guns and 
two revolvers. I shook hands with the most and counted the opposite 
party. There were fifteen of them, each with a rifle and revolver. I 
made a memorandum of the above names at the time. I was the only 
citizen of Lawrence engaged in the rescue. Just after the rescue took 
place S. C. Smith, S. F. Tappan, L. I. Eastabrook, and A. McCaw 
joined our party. A few moments afterwards Louis Farley, C. Kiser, 
Rev. J. E. Stewart, F. L. Loch, and Mr. Jeminson joined the party; 
S. N. Wood and S. F. Tappan still being the only two from Lawrence 
present. Our party being organized, we marched five miles to Law- 
rence, where we arrived about daylight." 



EFFECT OF THE RESCUE. 1 87 

That the matter was premeditated but few Free-State men 
at that time doubted. The kilHng of Dow was not of itself 
sufficient to bring on a conflict with a pretended legal officer, 
but the arrest of such a man as Branson when the people 
were enraged at the murder would most likely provoke a 
rescue, which was the excuse desired for calling out the mili- 
tia, which meant the people of Missouri. To make the 
arrest the more exasperating, it was made on a warrant 
issued by the National Democrat and professed Free-State 
man who, as judge of election, received the votes of Mis- 
sourians on the 30th of March, namely, Hugh Cameron. He 
was appointed justice of the peace by the county commis- 
sioners, who were appointed by the Territorial Legislature, 
which Legislature was elected by the invaders, aided and 
abetted by Cameron. On arriving at Lawrence, about four 
o'clock in the morning, the rescuing party went directly to 
the house of Dr. Robinson, on Oread Hill, and reported 
what had been done. Robinson said that probably this 
action would furnish the long-wished-for pretext for calling 
out a force against Lawrence, and advised that they report 
in town. 

No one could doubt that the Governor would call out 
the mihtia, ostensibly to enforce the law, but really to hu- 
miliate the Free-State men and destroy Lawrence, or at 
least to compel the surrender of the Sharp's and other 
rifles at that place. Here, then, was the first skirmish, and 
what should be done? Undoubtedly the force would be 
called out by authority of the Governor, and to resist it 
would be to resist Federal authority, which could not be 
thought of for a moment. While the Free-State men might, 
under favorable circumstances, resist the bogus local au- 
thority, the moment a Federal officer appeared all were loyal 
citizens of the Repubhc. There was nothing left to be done 
but to thwart, baffle, and circumvent. If the President 
chose to persist in the enforcement of the fraud of the 30th 
of March, the bona fide settlers must so conduct themselves 



155 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

as to make it cost him more in popularity and ease than he 
would gain for the cause of slavery extension. In this case 
the pohcy should be to let the Governor call on his " dogs of 
war," the more the better, and after weeks of organization, 
pillage and outrage upon the inhabitants, thwart the whole 
movement by having no man in sight to arrest, leaving him 
nothing to do but swallow his rage and send home his 
minions. The spectacle would be one that would excite 
loathing, disgust, and ridicule from one end of the nation to 
the other, and the Administration would suffer more in repu- 
tation than by the loss of thousands of men in a pitched 
battle. If the Free-State men could succeed in compelling 
the Administration to raise an army of one or two thousand 
men every time a peace warrant was to be served, the people 
of the country at large would soon remind it that this kind 
of popular sovereignty was entirely too unpopular, and 
would insist that the people of the Territory should be left 
free to settle their own matters in their own way, according 
to the pledge of the organic act. 

After the rescue the bogus Sheriff went to Franklin, a pro- 
slavery settlement four miles southeast of Lawrence, and 
from there sent off his dispatches. According to the testi- 
mony of L. A. Prather, before the congressional committee, 
the first dispatch was sent to Colonel Boone, of Westport, 
Missouri, and the second to the Governor. 

Robinson met the rescuers in town about six o'clock in 
the morning and advised that, as Lawrence had no connec- 
tion with the matter, any formal action or endorsement by 
its citizens would be impolitic. To this Colonel Wood and 
others readily assented, Wood saying that he would willingly 
be arrested in order to test in the Supreme Court the right of 
Missouri to make laws in Kansas. About nine o'clock Rob- 
inson made his second visit to the town, when he found a 
meeting of the citizens in progress. He was informed that 
a Committee of Safety had been appointed, of which he was 
a member. The committee was at once convened, and it 



PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENSE. 1 59 

decided that Lawrence had nothing to do with the affair, and 
should assume no responsibihty for it as a town, although no 
person censured the rescuers for their action. 

As the Free-State men had been accused by the Adminis- 
tration of insubordination and treason, it was important that 
their position should be clearly stated and published to the 
world. Accordingly, one of the first acts of the Committee 
of Safety was to make this statement : 

" We, the citizens of Kansas Territory, find ourselves in a condition 
of confusion and defenselessness so great, that open outrage and mid- 
day murders are becoming the rule, and quiet and security the excep- 
tion. And whereas the law, the only authoritative engine to correct 
and regulate the excesses and wrongs of society, has never yet been 
extended to our Territory — thus leaving us with no fixed or definite 
rules of action, or source of redress — we are reduced to the necessity of 
organizing ourselves together on the basis of first principles, and pro- 
viding for the common defense and general security. And here we 
pledge ourselves to the resistance of lawlessness and outrage at all 
times, when required by the officers who may from time to time be 
chosen to superintend the movements of the organization." 

, After several days, a Leavenworth paper containing the 
Governor's proclamation was received, and the following 
answer was made : " That the allegations contained in the 
proclamation aforesaid are false in whole and in part ; that 
no such state of facts exists in this community ; that if such 
representations were ever made to Governor Shannon, the 
person or persons who made them have grossly deceived him ; 
and no association of lawless men armed with deadly weap- 
ons has ever been formed in this community for the purpose 
of ' resisting the laAvs of the country, trampling upon the au- 
thority of its ofl[icers, destroying the property of peaceable 
citizens or molesting any person in this Territory, or else- 
where, in the enjoyment of their rights.' " 

While the Free-State men were stating their position to the 
world, and acting strictly on the defensive, the other side 
was making, through the officials, the most extravagant and 
reckless assertions. The siurveyor-general, J. Calhoun, sent 



190 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

a letter to the St. Louis Republican, which is referred to by 
the Kansas City Enterpj-ise as follows : 

"AUTHENTIC NEWS FROM KANSAS. 

"Under this head \!cv& Missouri Republican publishes a letter from 
Hon. John Calhoun, Surveyor-General of Kansas and Nebraska, detail- 
ing the events connected with the difficulties at Lawrence. From this 
letter we make the following extracts ; our want of room prevents the 
publishing of the whole letter. 

" After giving an account of the origin of the difficulty, the killing of 
Dow by Coleman, his giving himself up to the sheriff, the arrest of 
Branson, the leader of the band, who had been burning down houses 
and driving women and children from their houses, either by force or 
threats, he then gives the following extracts of a letter from Governor 
Shannon : 

" ' The excitement is up in Missouri. The appeals of flying women 
and children, and the belief that the abolitionists have determined to 
expel the pro-slavery men from Hickory Grove, has kindled a flame 
that no human power can control.' 

" The Governor further adds : 

" ' The time has come when these armed men must be met, and 
brought into subjection to law, or surrender the Government into their 
hands. I have determined to have the laws executed, and to protect 
the unoffending people of the Territory from lawless violence. If not, 
there is no use in a Government ; and to let these armed bands triumph 
now over law would be virtually surrendering the whole Government 
to them. But I can do this by the force of our own citizens, and intend 
to use no others. But who can control the storm? These abolitionists 
are mad. They are bringing on themselves utter ruin, and all this is 
the legitimate result of their lawless, secret military associations.' 

" These are the facts as they have occurred up to this time. What 
to-morrow will bring forth, amid the excitement which such outrages 
have produced, none can tell. Of one thing rest assured, the laws of 
this Territory will be executed. That Governor Shannon will do his 
full duty in the present crisis no one need doubt. * * * 

" It is estimated that some sixteen dwelling houses have been burnt, all 
of them in the night time, with their contents, and their occupants, men, 
women, and children, driven to the prairies without shelter or protec- 
tion. The leading spirit of these lawless movements is C. Robinson, 
the leading spirit also of the Topeka Convention. * * * It is said 
that he has at least five hundred men, armed with Sharp's rifles and 
revolvers, determined to offer a forcible resistance to the execution of 
the laws. He has threatened to hang Sheriff Jones, Coleman, and 



CALHOUN'S STATEMENT. I9I 

Others, as soon as he can get hold of them. Men are coming to the 
aid of the Governor from all parts of the Territory. He is determined 
that the laws shall be executed, and that all these offenders shall be 
punished as the law directs. Yesterday he sent a dispatch to President 
Pierce, asking for authority to use the military force at Fort Leaven- 
worth. To-day or to-morrow he will get a reply. If he should get 
permission to bring Sumner's regiment to his aid, the diihculty will be 
ended without bloodshed. If not, the most serious consequences may 
be apprehended. 

" There is one view of Kansas difficulties which at this time deserves 
serious notice. While Robinson, the leading agent of the Massachu- 
setts Aid Society, the head of the Reeder faction at Lawrence, is calling 
upon abolitionists and free-soilers to elect a Governor and other officers, 
in violation of all law, and is leading on five hundred fanatics openly 
to resist the execution of the law, and burning down dwellings and 
driving women and children from their homes, the Leavenworth wing 
of the Reeder faction, under the lead of Delahay and Shankland, and 
Parrott, the author of the Reeder proclamation, which says all sensible 
men ' scorn and repudiate ' the Territorial laws, are advertising a ' law 
and order ' convention, which is to take place on next Friday at Leaven- 
worth. The violators of law, the associates of Robinson and his band 
of midnight desperadoes, are to have a law and order convention! 
This needs no comment. The object is too transparent not to be seen 
at a glance, and the ridiculous farce will fall as dead as their previous 
Topeka Convention. 

" Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. Calhoun." 

When squads and companies of armed men began to ar- 
rive at Franklin and the Wakarusa, the Committee of Safety- 
organized the men at Lawrence, some of whom had come 
from other locahties, into a regiment in due form, with Lane 
as Colonel, under the general supervision of Robinson, who 
was given supreme control, subject only to the Committee of 
Safety or council. The town became a mihtary camp, earth- 
works were thrown up and preparations for a defense made 
as complete as possible. Nothing could exceed the welcome 
given to the re-enforcements as they came with their Sharp's 
rifles from dift'erent setdements. Cheer upon cheer would 
go up till the whole town was enthusiastic. Especially was 
the arrival of one hundred men well armed, from Topeka, 



192 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

hailed with great demonstrations of joy. The Free-State 
men from Leavenworth, compelled from circumstances to be 
conservative, came over to criticise the course of their more 
radical Free-State brethren. But on meeting with the Com- 
mittee of Safety, and learning the situation, they fully en- 
dorsed the course taken by the people and joined the army 
of defense. Dr. James Davis, one of the Leavenworth men, 
had been to Lecompton and learned that the pro-slavery 
men were determined to demand a surrender of all Sharp's 
rifles at Lawrence or elsewhere, and desired to know what 
could be done about it. He was informed by Robinson 
that another " Missouri Compromise " would be proposed in 
such a case, namely, keep the rifles and surrender the con- 
tents. This would be the only surrender the people would 
make, as .was afterwards manifested at a public meeting. 
The Free-State men were not over scrupulous in matters im- 
material, and could shape their coiu-se relative to the bogus 
laws and ofificers as policy might dictate, but when it be- 
came a question of the surrender of a constitutional right, like 
the one to have arms for personal defense, no man or set of 
men could influence them to yield that right. As soon as 
the military organization was perfected, the Committee of 
Safety was supplanted by a council consisting of all officers, 
from captain up. By this council the position to be oc- 
cupied was fully discussed, and all knew that it was impreg- 
nable, and that no war would result unless by accident, or 
in violation of orders. All could see that no Federal officer 
would dare attack a city without cause, and Lawrence had 
given no cause, and if all would obey orders no cause would 
be given. Hence, having full faith in themselves, and in 
the strength of their position, all went about their duties in 
preparing for defense with cheerfulness, and general good 
feehng. No demonstrations, no threats, no bullying was 
seen or heard among Free-State men, and they witnessed 
such conduct from Jones and other pro-slavery men with 
amusement or disgust. The position of the men at Law- 



FREE-STATE POSITION. 1 93 

rence may be seen from remarks made on the 2d of De- 
cember, at a meeting of the citizens, as reported in Mrs. 
Robinson's " Kansas," page 122 : 

" Dr. Robinson, having been called upon several times to speak, 
also having been called from the hall two or three times, at last said, 
in a plain way, and in brief, that ' It was a time, in his opinion, for 
acting rather than speaking; that Shannon had placed himself in a bad 
situation. At his bidding all these Missourians had come over to help 
him enforce the laws ; but when they come to Lawrence they will find 
that nobody has broken any laws ; for the people of Lawrence are a law- 
abiding people. Their real object was to destroy Lawrence ; but it was 
a question whether they would attempt it without some pretext ; and 
before the American people Shannon would be responsible for their 
conduct. Fearful of some atrocious act upon the part of his drunken 
rabble, he has been compelled to remove the most of them to the camps 
on the Wakarusa. They really were in a predicament. They were 
afraid, and with reason, to attack Lawrence without a pretext. He had 
learned, but would not vouch for its truth, that Shannon had telegraphed 
to President Pierce for the troops at the forts. It was also reported 
that Pierce had telegraphed back again that he might have them, and, 
of course, he would get them. Of course he would disarm the people 
when an invading force of drunken Missourians was almost at our doors, 
and we have no protection in the government of the country.' (Laughter, 
and cries of ' Of course.') ' Men of Lawrence, and Free-State men, we 
must have courage, but with it we must have prudence. These men 
have come from Missouri to subjugate the Free-State men, to crush the 
Free-State movement — their pretense, that outrages have been commit- 
ted. They are sustained by all the United States authorities here ; and 
M'hile they do not think it essential that a good cause for fighting be 
given them, the authorities will wait at least for a plausible excuse 
before commencing to shed blood. This excuse must not be given 
them. Each man must be a committee of one to guard the reputation 
as well as the lives of the Free-State men. If the Missourians, partly 
from fear and partly from want of a sufficient pretext, have to go back 
without striking a blow, it will make them a laughing-stock and re-, 
dound fearfully against Shannon. This is the last struggle between 
freedom and slavery, and we must not flatter ourselves that it will be 
trivial or short. The Free-State men must stand shoulder to shoulder, 
with an unbroken front, and stand or fall together in defense of their 
liberties and homes. These may be dark days, but the American people 
and the world will justify us, and the cause of right will eventually 
triumph.' The enthusiasm with which these remarks were received 
evinced the deep feeling and determined spirit of the meeting." 
13 



194 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

The forbearance of the Free-State men is shown on page 
1 25 of the same book : 

" A startling incident occurred last night. One of our picket guards 
was fired upon. Two of the guard were sitting together, when a party 
of Missourians approached and fired six shots at them. Our men had 
strict orders not to fire, unless the emergency was desperate, and so 
bore the insult with remarkable prudence, and obeyed orders. 

" Our people are acting strictly upon the defensive, and these provo- 
cations are continually offered us to provoke a collision. They are 
endeavoring to draw them from the position which all the world will 
justify, that they may have a pretext for the destruction of Lawrence, 
which is really the whole cause of the invasion." 

For the first week of preparation the pro-slavery men 
were bold and blustering, threatening the direst vengeance 
against the hated town of Lawrence and all abolitionists. 
Jones frequently passed through Lawrence undisturbed, as 
did other pro-slavery men, no person paying much attention 
to them. On one occasion Jones was asked in presence of 
Robinson what he wanted ? and he rephed he would let the 
people know when he got ready. Pro-slavery papers in 
Kansas and on the border of Missouri sounded the alarm and 
called loudly for volunteers to put down the terrible rebell- 
ion and wipe out once for all the hated abolitionists. Such 
reports as follow were current : 

" Westport, November 27th. 
" Hon. E. A. McClarey, Jefferson City : 

" Governor Shannon has ordered out the militia against Lawrence. 
They are now in open rebellion against the laws. Jones is in danger." 

"(Private.) Dear General: The Governor has called out the 
militia, and you will hereby organize your division, and proceed forth- 
with to Lecompton. As the Governor has no power, you may call out 
.the Platte Rifle Company. They are always ready to help us. What- 
ever you do, do not implicate the Governor. 

" Daniel Woodson." 

"Weston, Mo., November 30th. 
" The greatest excitement continues to exist in Kansas. The officers 
have been resisted by the mobocrats, and the interposition of the militia 
has been called for. A secret letter from Secretary Woodson to Gen- 
eral Eastin has been written, in which the writer requests General 



ORDERS FROM GOVERNOR SHANNON. 



'95 



Eastin to call for the rifle company, at Platte City, Missouri, so as not 
to compromise Governor Shannon. Four hundred men from Jackson 
County are now en route for Douglas County, K. T. St. Joseph and 
Weston are requested to furnish each the same number. The people of 
Kansas are to be subjugated at all hazards." 

In addition to his proclamation declaring the Free-State 
men in rebellion, Governor Shannon sent this order to Gen- 
eral Richardson : 

" Headquarters, Shawnee Mission, K. T., 

" November 27, 1855. 
' ' Major- General William P. Richardson : 

" Sir: Reliable information has reached me that an armed military 
force is now in Lawrence, and that vicinity, in open rebellion against 
the laws of this Territory, and that they have determined that no process 
in the hands of the Sheriff of that county shall be executed. I have 
received a letter from S. J. Jones, Sheriff of Douglas County, informing 
me that he had arrested a man under a warrant placed in his hands, 
and while conveying him to Lecompton he was met by an armed force 
of some forty men, and that the prisoner was taken out of his custody, 
and defiance bid to the laws. I am also duly advised that an armed 
band of men have burnt a number of houses, destroyed personal prop- 
erty, and turned whole families out of doors in Douglas County. War- 
rants will be issued against these men and placed in the hands of the 
Sheriff of Douglas County for execution. He has written to me 
demanding three thousand men to aid him in the execution of the pro- 
cess of law. 

" You are, therefore, hereby ordered to collect together as large a 
force as you can in your division, and repair without delay to Lecomp- 
ton and report yourself to S. J. Jones, Sheriff of Douglas County, 
together with the number of your forces, and render him all the aid and 
assistance in your power in the execution of any legal process in his 
hands. The forces under your command are to be used for the sole 
purpose of aiding the Sheriff in executing the law, and for no other 
purpose. 

" I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

"Wilson Shannon." 

A similar order was sent to General Strickler. 

General Eastin, editor of the Leavenworth Herald, both 
through his paper and otherwise, sought to arouse the Slave- 
State men. He sent out the following appeal : 



196 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



TO ARMS! TO ARMS 



"It is expected that every lover of Law and Order will rally at 
Leavenworth on Saturday, December i, 1855, prepared to march at 
once to the scene of the rebellion, to put down the outlaws of Douglas 
County, who are committing depredations upon persons and property, 
burning down houses and declaring open hostility to the laws, and have 
forcibly rescued a prisoner from the Sheriff. Come one, come all! 
The laws must be executed. The outlaws, it is said, are armed to the 
teeth, and number 1000 men. Every man should bring his rifle and 
ammunition, and it would be well to bring two or three days' provision. 
Every man to his post, and to his duty. 

" Many Citizens." 

Governor Shannon, as has been seen, wrote John Calhoun, 
v/ho pubhshed it in the St. Louis Republicaji, that " the time 
has come when these armed men must be met and brought 
into subjection to law. * * * jf not there is no use in 
a government. * * * But I can do this by the force of 
our own citizens, and intend to use no other. Who can 
control the storm? These abohtionists are mad. They are 
bringing on themselves utter ruin, and all this is the legiti- 
mate result of their lawless secret military associations." 

Surveyor- General Calhoun himself says : " Of one thing 
rest assured, the laws of this Territory will be executed." 

So much for the first week of the invasion. Governor 
Shannon's proclamations and letters, and the bluster of 
others, intended to raise the wind for the purpose of serving 
a peace warrant, threatened to raise not only a whirlwind, 
but a cyclone, and they began to call upon the rocks and 
mountains to hide them from the impending wrath. L. J, 
Eastin, brigadier-general of militia, and editor of the Leav- 
enworth Herald, who had been so bold and aggressive, sends 
this to Governor Shannon : " Information has been received 
here direct from Lawrence, which I consider reliable, that 
the outlaws are well fortified at Lawrence with cannon and 
Sharp's rifles, and number at least 1000 men. It will there- 
fore be difficult to dispossess them. The militia in this por- 
tion of the State are entirely unorganized, and mostly without 



SHANNON CALLS FOR HELP. 1 97 

arms. I suggest the propriety of calling upon the military 
at Fort Leavenworth. If you have the power to call out 
the Government troops, I think it would be best to do so at 
once. It might overawe these outlaws and prevent blood- 
shed." 

Governor Shannon, who was so confident that he could 
put down this rebellion with the " force of our own citizens," 
and who declared to Calhoun that he should " use no 
others," now sent this dispatch to Colonel Sumner, dated 
December 6th : 

" Wakarusa, December 6, 1855. 
' ' Colonel Sumner, First U. S. Cavalry : 

" Sir : I send you this special dispatch to ask you to come to Law- 
rence as soon as you possibly can. My object is to secure the citizens 
of that place, as well as others, from a warfare which, if once com- 
menced, there is no telling where it will end. I doubt not you have 
received orders from Washington, but if you have not, the absolute 
pressure of this crisis is such as to justify you with the President and 
the world in moving to the scene of difficulty. It is hard to restrain 
the men here (they are beyond my power, or at least, soon will be) 
from making an attack on Lawrence, which, if once made, there is no 
telling where it will terminatfe. The presence of a portion of the United 
States troops at Lawrence would prevent an attack, save bloodshed, and 
enable us to get matters arranged in a satisfactory way, and at the same 
time secure an execution of the laws. It is peace, not war, that we 
want, and you have the power to secure peace. Time is precious — 
fear not but that you will be sustained. 

" With great respect, 

"Wilson Shannon." 

He also sent to Jones : 

" The known deficiency in arms and all the accoutrements of war, 
which must necessarily characterize the law-abiding citizens who have 
rushed to your assistance in the maintenance of order, will invite re- 
sistance from your opponents, who are well supplied with arms. It 
would be wrong, therefore, to place your men in a position where their 
lives would be endangered when we shall, in all probability, have an 
ample force from Leavenworth in a few days." 

Sheriff Jones did not want to be hampered by Govern- 
ment troops, knowing very well that he had no case at Law- 



ig6 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

rence that Sumner would recognize as authorizing his action, 
and he wrote the Governor as follows : 

" Camp at Wakarusa, December 3, 1855. 
' ' I/is Excellency Governor Wilson Shannoti : 

" Sir : In reply to your communication of yesterday, I have to inform 
you that the volunteer forces now at this place and Lecompton are get- 
ting weary of inaction. They will, I presume, remain but a short time 
longer, unless a demand for the prisoner is made. I think I shall have 
a sufficient force to protect me by to-morrow morning. The force at 
Lawrence is not half so strong as reported. I have this from a reliable 
source. If I am to wait for Government troops, more than two-thirds 
of the men now here will go away very much dissatisfied. They are 
leaving hourly as it is. I do not by any means wish to violate your 
orders, but I really believe that if I have a sufficient force it would be 
better to make the demand. It is reported that the people of Lawrence 
' have run off ' those offenders from that town, and indeed it is said that 
they are now all out of the way. I have writs for sixteen persons who 
were with the party that rescued my prisoner. S. N. Wood, P. R. 
Brooks, and Samuel Tappan are of Lawrence, the balance from the 
country around. Warrants will be placed in my hands to-day for the 
arrest of G. W. Brown, and probably others in Lawrence. They say 
they are willing to obey the laws, but no confidence can be placed in 
any statements they may make. 

" No evidence sufficient to cause a warrant to be issued has as yet 
been brought against these lawless men who fired the houses. I would 
give you the names of the defendants, but the writs are in my office at 
Lecompton. 

" Most respectfully yours, 

" Samuel J. Jones, 
" Sheriff of Douglas County." 

Anderson followed suit Avith this letter to General Rich- 
ardson : 

" 3fajoj-- Genera I William P. Richardson : 

" Sir: I have reason to believe from rumors in camp, that before 
to-morrow morning the black flag will be hoisted, when nine out of ten 
will rally around it, and march without orders upon Lawrence. The 
forces of Lecompton camp fully understand the plot, and will fight 
under the same banner. 

' ' If Governor Shannon will pledge himself not to allow any United 
States officer to interfere with the arms belonging to the United States 
now in their possession, and in case there is no battle, order the United 



FREE-STATE MEN SPEAK. 1 99 

States forces off at once and retain the militia provided any force is 
retained, all will be Mell, and all will obey to the end, and commit no 
depredations upon private property in Lawrence. 

" I fear a collision between the United States soldiers and the volun- 
teers, which would be dreadful. 

" Speedy measures should be taken. Let me know at once — to-night 
— and I fear it will then be too late to stay the rashness of our people. 
" Respectfully your obedient servant, 

"J. C. Anderson." 

The council at Lawrence sent the following to the Gov- 
ernor, who was still at the Shawnee Mission : 

' ' To his Excellency, Wilson S/iatmon, 

' ' Goz'eifwr of Kansas Territory : 
" Sir : As citizens of Kansas Territory, we desire to call your atten- 
tion to the fact that a large force of armed men from a foreign State 
have assembled in the vicinity of Lawrence, and are now committing 
depredations upon our citizens, stopping wagons, opening and appro- 
priating their loads, arresting, detaining, and threatening travellers 
upon the public road, and that they claim to do this by your authority. 
We desire to know if they do appear by your authority, and if you will 
secure the peace and quiet of the community by ordering their instant 
removal, or compel us to resort to some other means and to higher 
authority." 

(Signed by committee.) 

This must have been a revelation to the Governor, as it 
was intended to be. Here was no appeal for mercy or par- 
don for crimes committed, no cry for help in time of distress, 
and no cringing of slaves to a master, but a stern demand of 
rights from citizens to an official servant. This message was 
taken to the Governor by two young men through the hnes 
of the enemy camped at Franklin and on the Wakarusa. 
It was a most hazardous mission, as they had to encounter 
drunken men as well as sentinels nearly the whole distance. 
Their names are G. P. Lowry and C. W. Babcock, and well 
did they execute their trust. They reached the Governor in 
safety, and the interview is thus described by Lowry in his 
testimony before the congressional committee, as reported 
on page 1079 : 



200 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" We got to Shawnee Mission a little after sunrise, and presented 
our letter to Governor Shannon, and he read it, as it was very short, 
and then we conversed upon the affairs here. 

" Governor Shannon said he would answer the letter, and we went 
out while he was doing so. When we returned we had a long conver- 
sation concerning these affairs. He said there had been sixteen houses 
burned here by Free-State men, and women and children driven out of 
doors. We told him we were sorry that he had not taken pains to 
inquire into the truth of the matter before he had brought this large 
force into the country, which, perhaps, he could not get out again ; and 
that his information was wholly and entirely false, as nothing of the 
kind had happened. We told him of what we knew, of our personal 
knowledge, of men from Missouri there; and he was not inclined to 
admit, at first, that there was anybody from Missouri there. He made 
a general argument against the Free-State men, and quoted their 
resolutions, passed at different meetings, in regard to the Territorial 
laws. We explained to him that the Territorial laws had nothing to do 
with this case ; that we were getting ready at Lawrence to fight for our 
lives, and the only question was, whether he would be particeps criminis 
to our murder, or the murder of somebody else, should we be all 
slaughtered. We explained to him that the rescue upon which he based 
his proclamation took place a number of miles from Lawrence ; that 
there were but three persons living in Lawrence who were alleged to 
have had anything to do with it, and that they had left the town, and 
were not there at all; that from what we could judge of the intentions 
of the force at Wakarusa, at Lecompton, and in the country about, from 
their own declarations, they intended to destroy the town for a thing in 
which they had had no part or parcel. 

" We took our individual cases as instances that we had not been 
present at the rescue ; that we did not undertake to have any sympathy 
with it, or talk about it at all ; but that if we were to submit to the force 
which he had called in, all our throats would be. cut together — the 
innocent and guilty, if there were any guilty. He then denied that 
these Missourians were here by his authority ; that he had anything to 
do with them, or was responsible for them. He said he had communi- 
cation with Colonel Sumner, of Fort Leavenworth, and had sent an 
express for him to meet him that night at Delaware Ferry, and go with 
him to the camp on the Wakarusa. He said he should go to Lawrence 
and insist upon the people agreeing to obey the laws, and delivering up 
their Sharp's rifles. We denied his right, or the right of anybody else, 
to make such a condition of a community, or make any such demand of 
them, until it had been shown that they had resisted the laws, which 
they had not done ; that there had been as yet no proceedings in Law- 



SHANNON'S EYES OPENED. 201 

rence under the Territorial laws, and he had no right to presume that 
there would be any resistance to them when they were instituted. He 
gave up that point after some argument. I asked him, then, why he 
insisted upon the giving up of Sharp's rifles, and if he meant to demand, 
too. Western rifles, shot-guns, and other arms. He said he did not 
intend to demand other than Sharp's rifles, but should demand them 
because they were unlawful weapons. After some time he then said 
they were dangerous weapons ; to which I agreed. I then told him, if 
he had any such idea in his head as that, he had better stay away and 
let the fight go on, as I thought the thing was not feasible, as he would 
do no good by coming here if those were his terms. I told him he 
might as well demand of me my pocket-book or my watch, and I would 
resent the one no more than the other. I told him I did not consider 
myself safe, or that General Robinson or Colonel Lane would be safe, 
in going before our men with any such proposition. He then gave us 
the letter he had written, and we started for Kansas City to change 
horses." 

Although Governor Shannon, before the same committee, 
contradicted some of the testimony of Lowry, he got his 
eyes opened by the message and interview sufficiently, at 
least, to see " men as trees walking," and he hastened to the 
encampment of his army of invasion or occupation. After 
conferring with the high officials in command, he sent to 
Lawrence, as previously arranged, for an escort to visit that 
town. On arrival he and his friends were introduced to the 
council and others, after which a consultation was held with 
Robinson and Lane, who had been authorized to represent 
the citizens. Governor Shannon needed no new facts or 
arguments, but at once confessed his mistake. He had mis- 
understood the situation, admitted there was no cause to 
attack Lawrence, and that no crime or violation of law had 
been committed in the town. His only sohcitude was to get 
his army to their homes without bloodshed. He did not 
claim that he had a right to disarm the people, although his 
army would demand the Sharp's rifles. On being assured 
that no such demand would be listened to by the people of 
Lawrence, he did not press it. He had sent a messenger to 
Colonel Sumner, and expected his arrival in a short time. He 



202 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

deemed it important to announce no conclusion of the con- 
ference till the next day, when Sumner would certainly be 
present with United States troops. An adjournment was 
had accordingly. In the meantime each party was to pre- 
pare a written statement that might assist the Governor in 
reconciling his army to return without wiping out Lawrence, 
as intended and promised by Jones and company. The 
next day the Governor returned, but there was no Colonel 
Sumner or United States troops in sight. The drafts for a 
treaty or agreement were considered, and one finally approved 
by both parties. It reads as follows : 

" Whereas, There is a i-nisunderstanding between the people of 
Kansas, or a portion of them, and the Governor thereof, arising out of 
the rescue, near Hickory Point, of a citizen under arrest, and some 
other matters ; and whereas a strong apprehension exists that said mis- 
understanding may lead to civil strife and bloodshed ; and whereas it is 
desired, by both Governor Shannon and the people of Lawrence and 
vicinity, to avert a calamity so disastrous to the interests of the Terri- 
tory and the Union, and to place all parties in a correct position before 
the world : 

" Now, therefore, it is agreed by the said Governor Shannon, and 
the undersigned people of Lawrence, that the matter in dispute be set- 
tled as follows, to wit : 

" We, the said citizens of said Territory, protest that the said rescue 
was made without our knowledge or consent, but, if any of our citizens 
were engaged, we pledge ourselves to aid in the execution of any legal 
process against them ; that we have no knowledge of the previous, pres- 
ent, or prospective existence of any organization in the said Territory 
for resistance against the laws, and that we have not designed, and do 
not design, to resist the legal service of any criminal process therein, 
but pledge ourselves to aid in the execution of the laws, when called on 
by proper authority, in the town or vicinity of Lawrence, and that we 
will use all our influence in preserving order therein ; and we declare 
that we are now, as we ever have been, ready at any time to aid the 
Governor in securing a posse for the execution of such process : pro- 
vided that any person thus arrested in Lawrence or vicinity, while a 
foreign force shall reman in the Territory, shall be duly examined before 
a United States District Judge of said Territory in said town, and ad- 
mitted to bail ; and provided, further, that Governor Shannon agrees to 
use his influence to secure to the citizens of Kansas Territory remu- 
neration for any damages sustained, or unlawful depredations, if any such 



MURDER OF BARBER. 203 

have been committed by the Sheriff's posse in Douglas County ; and, 
further, that Governor Shannon states that he has not called upon per- 
sons resident of any other State to aid in the execution of the laws, and 
such as are here in this Territory are here of their own choice ; and that 
he has not any authority or legal power to do so, nor will he exercise 
any such power, and that he will not call on any citizen of another State 
who may be here. That we wish it understood that we do not herein 
express any opinion as to the validity of the enactments of the Territorial 
Legislature. 

(Signed), " Wilson Shannon, 

" C. Robinson, 
"J. H. Lane." 

The people of Lawrence were willing to help the Governor 
out of his scrape as much as possible without compromising 
their attitude towards the territorial fraud, the Legislature. 
That there might be no quibbling as to the meaning of the 
terms of the agreement relative to territorial laws, Robinson 
added the last sentence to the document. 

This was a most critical juncture. The Governor was 
terribly in earnest to effect a settlement, while the pro-slavery 
leaders, represented by Jones and the ultra men, were as de- 
termined that Lawrence should be attacked. The day before 
the arrival of the Governor at Lawrence, two men, G. W. 
Clark, Indian agent, and Mr. Burns, left their party, which 
was going from Lecompton to Franklin, and wantonly and 
without provocation killed Thomas Barber, a Free-State man, 
on his way from Lawrence to his home. Also the guard 
was frequently fired upon with a view to bring on a conflict. 
In one instance only was the fire returned, and that was 
when Coleman, the murderer of Dow, passed down the road 
on a mule and fired upon the guard. The return shot hit 
the mule, but not the rider. Governor Shannon was visibly 
affected when, on going up-stairs to the council-room, he saw 
the dead body of Barber stretched upon a bench, dressed as 
he had fallen from his horse, and with eyes apparently staring 
at the stairway, and the moans of the widow, as they were 
heard from another room, were not consoling to his feelings. 



204 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Probably the Administration at Washington was divided 
by the same influences that operated in Kansas. Governor 
Shannon telegraphed the President on the 3d of December 
for permission to use the troops at Fort Leavenworth. He 
was answered that he might use them. He sent this answer 
to Colonel Sumner, and he at first promised to respond, but 
on reconsideration of the matter he concluded to await an 
order from the War Department before moving. This order 
never came. 

As Jeff Davis was the head of this department, and as he 
probably desired a conflict of the militia or posse with the 
citizens, and knew that the presence of United States troops 
would prevent it, he declined to send the order, as authorized 
by the President. 

In his desire to reconcile his force to a back-down, Gov- 
ernor Shannon had arranged, before going to Lawrence on 
his second visit, to have a joint meeting of the opposing lead- 
ers. Accordingly he desired a delegation from Lawrence to 
accompany him to Franklin and meet with the captains of 
the mihtia. Lane and Robinson complied with his request. 
At the meeting in an unfinished building, Governor Shannon 
led off with an explanation of the settlement, giving the posi- 
tion occupied by the citizens of Lawrence. After him Colonel 
Lane attempted to speak, but his opening so offended the 
thirteen mihtia captains that they started to leave the room, 
saying they did not come there to be insulted. Governor 
Shannon begged of them to remain and hear Dr. Robinson. 
Lane did not proceed, and Robinson, in a few words, ex- 
plained the action of the people of Lawrence, saying that no 
attempt had ever been made to serve any process in the town, 
legal or otherwise, by any officer, real or pretended. Jones 
was appealed to by a militia ofiicer to know if Robinson told 
the truth. Jones replied that he did. Then, the response 
about the room was, " We have been damnably deceived." 
As to the Sharp's rifles, Robinson appealed to them to say if 
they would, as American citizens, submit to be deprived of 



INTERVIEW OF LEADERS. 205 

the constitutional right to bear arms, or if they would respect 
any people who would thus submit f The leading men saw 
their predicament, and said, " Boys, it is no use, they have got 
us ; we can do nothing this time," and the conference ended 
with a pressing invitation to remain to supper. This Lane 
and Robinson, as it was getting dark, and a strong north- 
west wind had risen, with heavy sleet, tried to decline. But 
they said that Governor Shannon and party had dined with 
Robinson, and no refusal would be accepted. When supper 
was over, it was so dark no object was visible, and the sound 
of the horses' hoofs upon the hard road was the only guide 
to the travellers. A solitary horseman started to escort the 
visitors through the lines, but he proceeded only about one 
hundred yards, when he said good-night and left his charge 
to get by the guards as best they could. At this Lane said to 
Robinson, " Hurry up, this means assassination ; they mean 
to kill us," and started his horse upon the run. Franklin is 
situated on the old California road, and the first valley west 
of it is the place where the ox had its leg twisted on Sunday 
in 1849, and brought on the hvely discussion of the Sabbath 
question. Deep gullies had been washed in the road at this 
point, causing travellers to turn sharply to the right to avoid 
them. As Robinson was on the left, his horse ran into one 
of these gullies, while Lane's escaped. The horse fell with 
great force, and for some minutes was unable to rise. No 
damage, however, was done, except the delay. This valley 
is undoubtedly an unfortunate place. In 1856 a Free-State 
man was killed near it, and Franklin has perished from off 
the face of the earth. The night after the ratification of the 
treaty of peace, and after all had retired at headquarters upon 
benches and on the floor, a guard reported that three men 
had driven some women out of a cabin east of town and 
taken possession, and he desired to know what should be 
done ? All in the room heard the report, but all pretended 
to be in a sound sleep, including the officer of the day, whose 
duty it was to attend to the matter. After some minutes 



2o6 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Deitzler, who was adjutant-general, jumped up and said, 
" Damn a paper hero ; who will go with me and bring them 
in ? " In due time he brought in three heavily armed men, 
who claimed that in the darkness and sleet they had lost 
their way. In the morning, as the war was over, they were 
allowed to go. It is not doubted but these men were out 
for the purpose of killing the guests of the Governor and of 
the captains of militia. On the next day after peace was 
declared. Governor Shannon dismissed his militia and re- 
turned to Lawrence, where he expressed great satisfaction at 
the termination of the war. While being entertained by the 
citizens of both sexes, an alarm was raised that the disbanded 
forces were marching upon Lawrence, when the Governor 
gave this authority to Robinson and Lane : 

' ' To Charles Robinson and J. H. Lane : 

" You are hereby authorized and directed to take such measures, and 
use the enrolled forces under your command in such manner, for the 
preservation of the peace and the protection of the persons and property 
of the people of Lawrence and vicinity, as in your judgment shall best 
secure that end. 

(Signed) " WiLSON Shannon. 

" Lawrence, December 9, 1855." 

However, on investigation, the rumor proved to be un- 
founded, the militia having left the Territory by the most 
direct route. 

Such was the general rejoicing at Lawrence that a peace 
jubilee was held on the loth, to which the Governor and 
other oificials were invited, including Sheriff Jones. The 
Governor excused himself, but Jones attended. Several 
speeches were made, and all would have passed off pleasantly 
had it not been for an attempt to excite hostility to Jones 
to such a degree as to require the utmost exertion and care 
to prevent his assassination. 

This is but a mere outline of the Wakarusa war, so-called, 
as conducted by the Free-State party. Governor Shannon, 
in his testimony, said that "the posse was over 1400, as re- 



POSITION OF LANE AND BROWN. 207 

ported to me by General Strickler, and I suppose there were 
about five hundred that had never organized themselves, or 
been placed under the Sheriff." 

James F. Legate testified that Jones told him not over two 
hundred men in the posse were residents of the Territory, 
while the remainder were from Missouri. While some regard 
the result as the greatest victory, under all the circumstances, 
that could have been achieved, others call it a cowardly sur- 
render and disastrous defeat. Such persons single out two 
men, Lane and Brown, and claim that their policy, if adopted, 
would have changed defeat to victory. They proposed to take 
the offensive against Federal authority instead of a defen- 
sive position. Colonel Lane one night was reported to head- 
quarters as about starting to attack the militia, and doubtless 
would have done so had he not been threatened with arrest, 
John Brown, although he did not arrive till after the negotia- 
tions for peace had commenced, also proposed the same 
course. Lane also tried his best to procure the killing of 
Jones at the peace party, which, of course, had he been suc- 
cessful, would have opened the war in earnest, as the retiring 
disbanded posse or militia wanted no better excuse to attack 
the town. Mrs. Ropes, who was at the peace party, in her 
" Six Months in Kansas," page 143, referring to this matter, 
says: 

" It seemed that some of the hotel crowd were not ready to give up 
the war spirit, and accept with grace the peace-offering of social inter- 
course offered * * * to those who had arrayed themselves so cruelly 
against us. And, although Sheriff Jones was nothing more nor less 
than an officer, acting under his oath of office, he became an apple of 
discord, because he was the only representative of Missouri. I have to 
confess to a feeling of mortification that everybody could not at once 
bridge over the rapid current sweeping between these two contending 
parties, and let ' by-gones be by-gones.' But perhaps this feeling came 
to the surface because I had not entered into the atmosphere of blood- 
shed, and had not made the creation of ' cartridges ' the occupation of 
my leisure hours. Colonel Lane's voice could be heard in different 
rooms, detailing to eager listeners the most painful circumstances of 
poor Barber's death, and, with wonderful ingeniousness, keeping up 



208 ■ THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the wicked spirit of vengeance among those over whom he exercised any 
power. What on earth he was driving at by such a course, it seemed 
to my stupid self quite impossible to understand ; while, at the same 
time, I knew very well that he aimed at something he could not other- 
wise attain so well. Any reader of human faces can never study his 
without a sensation very much like that with which one stands at the 
edge of a slimy, sedgy, uncertain morass. If there is any good in him, 
I never, with all my industry in culling something pleasant from the 
most unpropitious characters, have been able to make the discovery. 
And he has not, in lieu of anything better, that agreeable fascination of 
manner which so often gives currency in society to men as hollow- 
hearted as he. General Robinson stood like an aggrieved king. He 
not only stemmed the tide, but rolled back the surging emotions of the 
crowd ; and the meeting closed much more like a gathering of peace 
than at one time seemed likely." 

Mrs. Robinson, who was 'also present, in her "Kansas," 
page 155, says: 

" Governor Shannon did not stay to the ' party.' When the morning 
came he found his business required his attention at the mission, and 
he went on his way. But ' Sheriff Jones ' was there, and there were 
some there beside who did not cherish that spirit of forgiveness and 
conciliation which makes man magnanimous in the treatment of an en- 
emy ; and the General's party at one time came near proving anything 
but a ' peace party.' There was a spirit there full of ambition, and a 
desire for office. And while the murder of young Barber was fresh in 
the minds of bis friends ; while the voice of poor, weak human nature 
would say revenge if the right cord was touched ; and while ' Sheriff 
Jones,' an officer of the Territorial courts, was an invited guest of Gen- 
eral Robinson, and political capital could be made ; with what wonderful 
ingenuity it wrought to keep alive this spirit of revenge in their breasts ! 
The object was evident to all, and the indignation of many was hardly 
kept within bounds. The event, however, proved but another instance 
of the evil, which was intended for another, recoiling upon one's own 
head." 

With reference to John Brown's course, James Redpath, 
in his "Life of Captain John Brown," on page 92, quotes 
approvingly a correspondence in the New York Herald, as 
follows : 

" After Governor Robinson had stated to the people who were gath- 
ered around the hotel the terms of the peace, Brown took the stand 



THE VICTORY. 209 

uninvited, and opposed the terms of the treaty. He was in favor of 
ignoring all treaties, and such leading men as Robinson, Lane, etc., 
and, proceeding at once against the border-ruffian invaders, drive them 
from the soil, or hang them if taken. The Chairman of the Committee 
of Safety ordered Brown under arrest." 

Here is the position taken by the Free-State men, desig- 
nated by F. B. Sanborn as "dastards," and the position 
tried to be taken by the two " indispensable " heroes of that 
gentleman, and the reader can take his choice. It is not 
easy to conjecture what greater victory the Free-State men 
could gain, or what greater defeat the pro-slavery men could 
suffer, than to have 1900 men march from forty to one hun- 
dred and fifty miles to serve a warrant issued by a justice of 
the peace and then rettun, after cursing, swearing, shivering 
and freezing for two weeks, as they came, minus the whiskey, 
without serving any process whatever, legal or otherwise. If 
a more brilliant victory has ever been gained, it has not been 
recorded. How many such defeats could the Administra- 
tion afford in enforcing "popular sovereignty " where the 
people were to be left perfectly free to settle their institutions 
in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States ? 

And what of the Free-State men called " dastards," who 
obeyed orders and suffered wrong without doing wrong f It 
is safe to say an equal number of men, with a more unflinch- 
ing courage, both moral and physical, has not been seen 
since the days of the Revolution. A coward can give blow 
for blow, eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, but it requires 
true courage to suffer wrong without retaliation that a great 
cause may be advanced. The Free-State men beUeved that 
every outrage inflicted strengthened their cause and corre- 
spondingly weakened that of their opponents ; that in their 
sufferings lay their strength. In this respect the Wakarusa 
war, while causing great annoyance and suffering, had en- 
listed the sympathies and support of the civihzed world. 

The conclusion of this campaign was the funeral of Bar- 



2IO THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

ber, who was at first temporarily buried. This funeral was 
attended by all the military companies accessible, and was 
most solemn and impressive. As the remarks of Dr. Robin- 
son present the issue of the war, placing the responsibility 
where it belonged, in his estimation, they are here given as 
published in the Herald of Freedom of December 22, 1855 : 
"THE BURIAL OF MR. BARBER. 

" General Robinson read a eulogy upon Mr. B.'s life and character. 
We extract the following : 

" ' The occasion which calls us together is one of deep interest and 
peculiar significance to every patriot and Republican. 

' ' ' Our Territory has been repeatedly invaded, and our dearest rights 
trampled upon, by the citizens of a foreign State. They have taken 
possession of our ballot-boxes, and by force of arms have wrested from 
us the right to make our own laws and choose our own rulers, and im- 
posed upon us a system of laws uncongenial to our natures and wants. 
Having accomplished all this by invasion and outrage, it was but natural 
to suppose that invasion and outrage would be necessary to enforce their 
enactments. " Misunderstanding " the facts and the temper of the peo- 
ple as well as their tactics, the Executive recently gave the signal for 
another invasion, and the armed hordes responded. Our citizens have 
been besieged, robbed, insulted, and murdered ; and our town threatened 
with destruction for two whole weeks, by the authority of the Executive, 
and, as he now says, in consequence of a "misunderstanding." A 
misunderstanding on the part of an Executive is a most unfortunate 
affair. 

" ' Our Governor having been told that the people of Kansas did 
not recognize the laws of Missouri, and were determined these laws 
should be a dead letter in the Territory, unwittingly fell into the error 
of supposing the people would array themselves against the Government 
of the United States, evidently not understanding how a code of enact- 
ments can be effectually resisted and no law violated. Had he carefully 
read the early history of his country, he might have understood the 
" Sons of Liberty " better than to suppose any United States law would 
be violated by the people, or, if violated, that the community would be 
guilty of violating it. 

" ' By whose act do the remains of the lamented Thomas Barber now 
await interment at our hands? By whose hand is his wife made a 
widow? By whose instrumentality are we made to mourn the untimely 
fall of a brave comrade and worthy citizen? Report says Thomas Bar- 
ber was murdered in cold blood by an officer or officers of the Govern- 
ment, who was a member of the Sheriff's posse, which was commanded 



BURIAL OF BARBER. 211 

by the Governor, who is backed by the President of the United States. 
Was Thomas Barber murdered? Then are the men who killed him, 
and the officials by whose authority they acted, his murderers. And if 
the laws are to be enforced, then will the Indian Agent, the Governor, 
and the President be convicted of, and punished for, murder. There 
is work enough for the " law and order " men to do, and let us hear no 
more about resistance to the laws till this work is done. If all Missouri 
must be aroused and the whole nation convulsed to serve a peace war- 
rant on an unoffending citizen, may we not expect some slight effort 
will be made to bring these capital offenders to justice? Or are our 
laws made for the low, and not the high — for the poor, and not the rich? 

" ' For the dead we need not mourn. He fell a martyr to principle ; 
and his blood will nourish the tree of liberty. An honorable death is 
preferable to a dishonorable and inglorious life. Such was the death of 
our brother, and as such he will ever be cherished by his companions 
and fellow-citizens. It is glory enough for any man that a body of 
men like the Barber Guards should adopt his name to designate and 
distinguish their company. 

" ' To his beloved and bereaved wife, to his brothers and relatives, 
to the members of his company, to all who have pledged property, 
honor, and life to the cause of freedom and humanity, I seem to hear 
the spirit of our departed brother say, " Be of good cheer; weep not 
for me ; you are engaged in a good work, and your reward will be glo- 
rious. Death is no misfortune to the true; indeed, it is sweet to die 
in defense of liberty." 

" ' But the shock produced by the murder of our friend is felt beyond 
the circle of his immediate relations and friends. It has shaken the 
entire fabric of our Government to its very base, and nothing but the 
unseen hand of the All-Wise Governor of the Universe could have saved 
this nation from civil war and political death. 

" ' It is due to the bold stand taken by the freemen of Kansas dur- 
ing the late invasion that the sun of Liberty is still above the horizon ; 
and cold indeed must be his heart, wherever found, that does not beat 
in unison with ours as we pay the last tribute of respect to the remains 
of our brother ! Can the people of this nation approve the 

" ' Costly mockery of piling stone on stone? 

To those who won our liberty, the heroes dead and gone. 
While we look coldly on, and see law-shielded ruffians slay 
The men who fain would win their own, the heroes of to-day? 

'"No! 

" ' Be callous as they will, 
From soul to soul, o'er all the world, 
Leaps one electric thrill.' " 



CHAPTER IX, 

RESULTS OF THE WAKARUSA WAR. A CONGRESSIONAL 

INVESTIGATION. 

As the " smoke of battle " cleared away, an opportunity 
was offered to take a calm and unbiased survey of the field 
and ascertain the gain or loss to the respective parties. 

One item on the side of gain was the opening of the eyes 
of the Governor to the character both of the Free-State and 
of the pro-slavery men. He had heard nothing but evil of 
the one, and nothing but good of the other. The Free- 
State men in his estimation were a set of anarchists, made 
up of the offscouring of the land, ready to overthrow any 
and all government that might stand in their way, while their 
antagonists were but little, if any, lower than the angels. He 
undoubtedly modified both these opinions. Also he had 
learned that the Free-State men were under complete con- 
trol, and that no outrage, however aggravating, could discon- 
cert them or drive them to take a false or untenable position. 
On the contrary, the pro-slavery men were desperate and 
ungovernable characters, determined to accomplish their pur- 
poses though the Government and the heavens should fall. 

Another item of gain was that the Governer lost faith in 
his militia as a posse comitatus. Before the "war" he was 
self-confident and self-sufficient. On the 28th of November 
he wrote the President : 

" * * * Under these circumstances the Sheriff of the county has 
called on me for three thousand men to aid him in the execution of the 
warrants in his hands, and to protect him and his prisoner from the 
violence of this armed force. The force required by the Sheriff is far 
beyond what I believe to be necessary, and indeed far beyond what 
could be raised in this Territory. From five to eight hundred men will 



GOVERNOR SHANNON BEFORE THE WAR, 213 

be amply sufficient, I have no doubt, to protect the Sheriff, and enable 
him to execute the legal process in his hands. * * » 

" The time has come when this armed band of men, who are seek- 
ing to subvert and render powerless the existing government, have to 
be met and the laws enforced against them, or submit to their lawless 
dominion. If the lives and property of unoffending citizens of this 
Territory cannot be protected by law, there is an end to practical gov- 
ernment, and it becomes a useless formality. 

" The excitement along the border of Missouri is running wild, and 
nothing but the enforcement of the laws against these men will allay it. 
Since the disclosure of the existence and purpose of this secret military 
organization in this Territory, there has been much excitement along 
the borders of Missouri, but it has been held in check heretofore by 
assurances that the laws of the Territory would be enforced, and that 
protection would be given to the citizens against all unlawful acts of 
this association. This feeling and intense excitement can still be held 
in subordination if the laws are faithfully executed ; otherwise there is 
no power here that can control this border excitement, and civil war is 
inevitable. This military organization is looked upon as hostile to all 
Southern men, or, rather, to the law and order party of the Territory, 
many of whom have relations and friends, and all have sympathizers in 
Missouri, and the moment it is believed that the laws will not furnish 
adequate protection to tliis class of citizens against the lawless acts of 
this armed association, a force will be precipitated across the line to 
redress real and supposed wrongs inflicted on friends that cannot be 
controlled, or for the moment resisted. It is in vain to conceal the 
fact : we are standing on a volcano, the upheavings and agitations be- 
neath we feel, and no one can tell the hour when an eruption may take 
place. Under existing circumstances the importance of sustaining the 
Sheriff of Douglas County, and enabling him to execute his process, 
independent of other considerations connected with the peace and good 
order of society, will strike you at once ; and to do this by the aid and 
assistance of the citizens of this Territory is the great object to be ac- 
complished, to avoid the dreadful evils of civil war. I believe this can 
be done ; in this, however, I may be mistaken. No efforts shall be 
wanting on my part to preserve good order in the Territory, and I will 
keep you constantly advised of the progress and state of things here. 

" I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 

" Wilson Shannon. 

"His Excellency, Franklin Pierce. ^^ 

But after the " war " his tune was pitched in another key, 
and he wrote the President, December ii, 1855, as follows: 



214 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

'' Executive Office, Shawnee Mission, 

Kansas Territory, December ii, 1855. 
" Sir: In my dispatch to you of the 28th uUimo, I advised you of 
the threatened difficukies in relation to the execution of the laws of this 
Territory in Douglas County. The excitement which then existed con- 
tinued to increase, owing to the aggravated reports from Lawrence and 
that vicinity in relation to the military preparations that were being 
made to attack the Sheriff and resist the execution of the law. The 
excitement increased and spread, not only throughout this whole Terri- 
tory, but was worked up to the utmost point of intensity in the whole 
of the upper portion of Missouri. Armed men were seen rushing from 
all quarters towards Lawrence, some to defend the place, and others to 
demolish it. The orders I had issued to Major-General Richardson 
and General Strickler had brought to the Sheriff of Douglas County a 
very inadequate force for his protection, when compared with the forces 
in the town of Lawrence. Indeed, the militia of the Territory being 
wholly unorganized, no forces could be obtained except those who vol- 
untarily tendered their aid to the Sheriff, or to Generals Richardson 
and Strickler. The whole force in the Territory thus obtained did not 
amount to more than three or four hundred men, badly armed, and 
wholly unprepared to resist the forces in Lawrence, which amounted 
at that time to some six hundred men ; all remarkably well armed with 
Sharp's rifles and other weapons. These facts becoming known across 
the line, in the State of Missouri, large numbers of men from that State, 
in irregular bodies, rushed to the County of Douglas, and many of them 
enrolled themselves in the Sheriff's posse. In this state of affairs, I 
saw no way of avoiding a deadly conflict but to obtain the use of the 
United States forces at Fort Leavenworth, and with that view I ad- 
dressed you a telegraphic dispatch, and received on the 5th instant your 
very prompt and satisfactory reply of the 4th instant, a copy of which 
I immediately transmitted, by special dispatch, to Colonel Sumner, with 
the request that he would accompany me with his command to the scene 
of difficulty. In reply, I was informed he would immediately do so, 
having no doubt that in due time proper instructions would be received 
from the War Department. Information, however, which I received 
from both parties convinced me that my presence was necessary to 
avoid a conflict, and without waiting for Colonel Sumner, I repaired to 
the seat of threatened hostilities, at the same time advising Colonel 
Sumner, by special dispatch, of this movement. On my way to Law- 
rence, I met a dispatch from Colonel Sumner, informing me that, upon 
reflection, he had changed his determination, and that he would not 
march with his command until he had received orders from the proper 
department, but that he would be ready to move with his command the 
moment such orders came to hand. I proceeded as rapidly as possible 



GOVERNOR SHANNON AFTER THE WAR. 215 

to the camp of General Strickler, on the Wakarusa, six miles east of 
Lawrence, and arrived in camp about three o'clock on the morning of 
the 6th instant. I found General Strickler, as well as General Richard- 
son, had very judiciously adopted the policy of incorporating into their 
respective commands all the irregular forces that had arrived. This 
was done with the view of subjecting them to military orders and dis- 
cipline, and to prevent any unlawful acts or outbreaks. The great 
danger to be apprehended was from an unauthorized attack on the town 
of Lawrence, which was being strongly fortified, and had about one 
thousand and fifty men well armed to defend it, with two pieces of 
artillery, while on the other side there was probably in all nearly two 
thousand men, many of them indifferently armed, but having a strong 
park of artillery. I found in the camp at Wakarusa a deep and settled 
feeling of hostility against the opposing forces in Lawrence, and appar- 
ently a fixed determination to attack that place and demolish it and the 
presses, and take possession of their arms. It seemed to be a universal 
opinion in the camp that there was no safety to the law and order party 
in the Territory while the other party were permitted to retain their 
Sharp's rifles, an instrument used only for war purposes. After min- 
gling with all the leading men in the Wakarusa camp, and urging on 
them the importance of avoiding a conflict of arms, that such a step 
would light the torch of civil war and endanger the very Union itself, I 
still found that there was a strong desire with all, and a fixed determina- 
tion with many, to compel the forces in Lawrence to give up their arms. 
Believing that such a demand would lead to a conflict which, if once 
commenced, no one could tell where it would end, and seeing no way 
to avoid it except by the aid of the United States forces, I again wrote 
another communication to Colonel Sumner, and sent it to him by special 
dispatch about three o'clock on the morning of the 7th instant, request- 
ing his presence ; a copy of which I send you herewith, marked E. I 
received no reply until my return to this place, after the difficulty had 
been arranged. I send you a copy of this reply, marked F. Early on 
the morning of the 7th instant I repaired to the camp at Lawrence, 
and found them busily engaged in their fortifications and in drilling 
their forces, and had a full and satisfactory interview with the commit- 
tee appointed by the forces in Lawrence, in relation to the impending 
difficulties. * * * 

" Early on the morning of the 8th, through the influence of some 
leading men, I procured thirteen of the leading captains in the Wakarusa 
camp to be appointed a committee to confer with a committee from the 
Lawrence camp, to meet at Franklin, midway between the two hostile 
forces. I proceeded to the Lawrence camp, and returned to Franklin 
in the evening with the committee, where the proposed interview took 
place. This interview, which lasted for some time, resulted in produc- 



2 lb THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

ing a better state of feeling, and the committee from Wakarusa camp 
were satisfied to retire without doing anything more, and so reported to 
the army. This, with the active exertions of myself and others, pro- 
duced a better feeling among the men, and by daylight on the morning 
of the 9th I felt I could with safety order the forces to disband, and 
accordingly did so. They retired in order, and refrained from any act 
of violence, but it was evident there was a silent dissatisfaction at the 
course I had taken. But I felt conscious I was right, and that my 
course would be sanctioned alike by the dictates of humanity and sound 
policy. I returned to Lawrence on the 9th, remained until the morning 
of the loth, when, everything being quiet and safe, I returned to this 
place. Everything is quiet now; but it is my duty to say to you, 
frankly, that I have forebodings as to the future. The militia or volun- 
teer corps cannot be relied on to preserve the peace in these civil party 
contests, or where partisans are concerned. A call on the militia will 
generally only bring in conflict the two parties. I am satisfied that the 
only forces that can be used in this Territory in enforcing the laws, or 
preserving the peace, are those of the United States, and with this 
view I would suggest that the Executive of this Territory be authorized 
to call on the forces of the United States when, in his judgment, the 
public peace and tranquillity, or the execution of the laws, may require 
their assistance. Should there be an outbreak, it will most probably be 
sudden, and before orders can be obtained from Washington the crisis 
will have passed. I send you herewith the copies of various affidavits, 
letters, etc., which will give you some information in detail touching 
the subject-matter of this dispatch. 

" I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 

" Wilson Shannon. 
''His Excellency, Franklin Fierce.''^ 

One item gained to the Free-State men was a knowledge 
of some of their own men. While the pohcy of the party 
was distinctly outlined by the Committee of Safety and Coun- 
cil, two men of influence proved disloyal to that policy. G. P. 
Lowry, in his testimony before the Congressional Commit- 
tee, as reported on page 1081, said: "My impression is, 
that a conspiracy of one hundred men, to leave here (Law- 
rence) without orders and attack the camp on the Wakarusa, 
was found out shortly after Barber was killed, and put down 
by General Robinson." 

It was thought best at the time, and even when the Con- 
gressional Committee visited the Territory, in 1856, to say 



RESULTS OF THE WAR, 21 7 

but little about this movement or " conspiracy," and particu- 
I^ly of its prime mover, but Lowry, being on the general's 
staff, knew all about it, and that Colonel Lane was the insti- 
gator. Colonel Lane in this move was to the Kansas war 
what Captain Maloney was to the Sacramento riot when 
about to order an attack upon a private residence, with this 
difference, that Maloney was in supreme command while 
Lane was not. There has always been a question as to the 
motive that actuated Lane. It was well known to the lead- 
ing Free- State men that at heart he preferred a slave State ; 
tried to buy a slave ; said in his first public speech at Law- 
rence he had as soon buy a " nigger " as a mule ; recognized 
the Territorial Legislature as a legal body, and only consented 
to enhst in the Free-State constitutional movement when 
promised the support of the party for Senator. He was 
always on intimate terms with some of the pro-slavery lead- 
ers, and during the " war " had General Richardson and staff 
dine with him by invitation, when their forces were laying 
siege to the town and killed Barber. Whether he designed 
to change the position from one of defense to one of offense, 
and thus bring ruin upon the Free-State cause, or whether 
he wanted to court favor with inconsiderate and exas- 
perated men to secure a little political prestige, may never 
be known. Fortunately for the Free-State cause he was so 
well understood, and his loyalty so questioned, that he was 
never imphcitly trusted, and hence could not betray the 
cause if he should attempt it. John Brown proclaimed his 
position most emphatically as an enemy to both temtorial 
and national government, but was able to mislead no party 
and but few individuals. 

Nothing so disappointed the pro-slavery men as the fact 
that they could not get the Free-State men in collision with 
Federal authority. They had organized as an army with all 
the " circumstance of war," and one thing only was wanting 
to constitute treason, namely, that this war should be levied 
against the United States. Had the Slave-State men sue- 



215 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

ceeded in their design, the indictments for treason found the 
next spring would not have been the burlesque they proved. 
Then convictions and executions would have followed with 
the same alacrity as against the Harper's Ferry raiders, and 
with the approval of the entire nation, with scarcely an 
exception. The Free-State cause would have been blotted 
out as easily and effectually as was the army of twenty-one 
young men who threw themselves against a United States 
arsenal in 1859, under the lead of John Brown, when he 
was generalissimo and commander-in-chief of his new Re- 
public, with F. B. Sanborn, secretary of the Kansas Relief 
Committee, furnishing the sinews of war and out of the 
funds raised, ostensibly for the relief of Kansas. 

Another item of gain or loss in this war was the knowl- 
edge the pro-slavery men gained of their antagonists. The 
despised New England paupers had all at once assumed in 
their estimation the proportions of men of courage and sagac- 
ity, who could not be annihilated by an oath or anathema. 
This was of great benefit to them and of no detriment to 
the Free-State men. But the greatest gain to the Free-State 
men, and corresponding loss to their antagonists, was the 
record made before the country. They had demonstrated 
their courage, sagacity, and loyalty to Federal authority. 
Both North and South recognized the fact that the men 
stigmatized by the border press as paupers and hirelings 
were not to be trifled with, and that the Administration, 
even with Jeff Davis at the head of the War Department, 
had its match in strategy and management generally. Also 
the marching of an army from the State of Missouri, with 
war equipments taken from a United States arsenal, to serve 
a peace warrant in a Territory which was to be left perfectly 
free to manage its own affairs, caused general indignation in 
the Northern States, in some of which resolutions were 
adopted announcing that if Kansas was to be thus interfered 
with by one State, all States would take a hand in the busi- 
ness, even though the Union should go up in smoke. Neither 



SUMMARY OF 1855. 219 

was the lesson entirely lost upon the President, as will later 
appear. 

The Chicago Tribune said : " The Free-State men have 
acted well. We like their spirit. It is of the olden time 
— cool, yet resolved ; deliberate, yet wisely courageous." 

The year 1855 closed with a record less bloody than its 
successor. Two pro-slavery men had been killed since the 
opening of Kansas to settlement, namely, Henry Davis on 
November 29, 1854, and Malcolm Clark on April 30, 
1855; and three Free-State men, C. W. Dow, November 
2 1 St, Samuel CoUins in November at Doniphan, and Thomas 
Barber on the 6th of December, 1855. Several men had 
been brutally mobbed, all Free-State, among them WiUiam 
Phillips of Leavenworth, tarred and feathered, Pardee But- 
ler of Atchison County sent down the Missouri on a raft, 
and J. W. B. Kelly, severely beaten at Atchison. 

Two elections for delegate to Congress had been held, 
one on the ist of October, when General Whitfield was 
voted for by the Slave-State men, and one on the 9th of the 
same month, when Governor Reeder was voted for by the 
Free-State men. Although there was no conflict, over 800 
illegal votes were cast for Whitfield, as estimated by the 
Congressional Committee. These elections paved the way 
for a contest in Congress which resulted in the appointment 
of Howard, Sherman, and Oliver as a committee to visit 
Kansas in the spring of 1856 to procure testimony concern- 
ing the workings of " popular sovereignty." 

On the 15th of December, a few days after the close of 
the Wakarusa war, the election on the adoption of the To- 
peka Constitution was held, resulting in 1731 votes for, and 
46 votes against the Constitution; and 1287 against and 
453 for free negroes. This vote on free negroes was to be 
construed as instructions to the Legislature to exclude them 
from Kansas by law. If not so excluded the constitutional 
provision would be inoperative. This little manoeuvre was 
to catch both Eastern and Western congressional votes for 



2 20 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

admission into the Union. General Lane is entitled to full 
credit for setting the trap. Besides, as a large percentage 
of Free-State settlers at that time were from black law- 
States, and many even from Missom-i and the South, it 
seemed a very expedient provision, although vehemently 
denounced by the no-voting, no-policy abolitionists like 
Charles Stearns and John Brown. 

On the 2 2d of December came the convention for the 
nomination of State officers to be voted for on the 1 5th of 
January. At this convention the Garvey House and all 
other " slates " were ignored, and a ticket selected of as many 
colors, politically, as Joseph's coat. Three candidates were 
prominent for governor — Judge Smith, W. Y. Roberts, and 
Colonel Lane. The first two claimed that each had the 
pledge of Lane for his support, when, to their great discom- 
fort. Lane himself was a candidate with all the appliances 
of which he was master. As Lane distanced his other com- 
petitors on the first heat, they were virtually out of the race, 
and as those who Avere aware of Lane's career in Kansas, 
including his attempt to take the offensive at the late war, 
did not dare trust him at the head of the State movement, 
, a new man was agreed upon, namely, Dr. Robinson. This 
name, of course, created some friction, as it always had and 
probably always will. He had voted in the convention not 
only for negro suffrage, but for woman suffrage also, and 
would be a bitter pill for many to swallow. No one knew 
this better than himself, and he would have declined the 
nomination, as he would have declined the conduct of the 
late war, if he could have been assured that Lane would not 
wreck the Free-State cause. The ticket was declared by a 
few men to be an abolition ticket, and a bolt was inaugu- 
rated, resulting in the nomination of an " anti-abolition " 
ticket, although five names were the same on each. 

The Free State, then edited by Mr, Elliot, who never did 
like Robinson or the Aid Company, and who was nominated 
for State printer on the bolting ticket, opposed the ticket, 



STATE OFFICERS ELECTED. 22 1 

and placed at its mast-head the bolters' ticket, because the 
first was "abolition" and the second "anti-abolition." 

This was too ridiculous for even Charles Stearns, the 
Garrisonian, and he wrote the Herald of Freedo7n, closing as 
follows : 

" ' Anti-abolition ticket,' forsooth! Of course, then, Mr. Elliot, one 
of the principal supporters of the new ticket, must be a strong anti- 
abolitionist. Well, ' the times change ' and men change with them, I 
suppose; but this same Mr. Elliot, together with myself and a few 
others, one year ago strongly condemned the leading nominee of what 
Mr. Elliot now terms the ' abolition ticket ' because he was 7iot aboli- 
tion enough. The Free State denounced Dr. Robinson, as well as your- 
self, for taking ' conservative ground ' on the anti-slavery question, and 
supported one of the nominees of the ' anti-abolition ticket ' because he 
was more of an abolitionist, or anti-slavery man, than Dr. Robinson's 
favorite, Mr. Fleniken ; but now Dr. Robinson is too much of an aboli- 
tionist for Mr. Elliot. Verily pro-slavery has had quite an effect upon 
our former redoubted champion of undiluted anti-slavery. For my 
part, I shall not support the first ticket for the reason that it is not an 
abolition ticket, and of course not the second, because it carries a lie on 
the face of it, as I have above explained. 

" Yours respectfully, 

" C. Stearns." 

Quite an effort was made for the bolting ticket, but the 
result showed for it 410 votes to 1296 for the other. This 
was the death and burial of " anti-abolition " or conserva- 
tism in Kansas. From that time nothing more was heard 
of " black law " or " anti-abolition " ; and even Colonel Lane, 
who had been the champion of this cause, became the most 
radical of radicals, compelling the former radicals, like 
Brown, the Speers, Deitzler, Wood, Lowry, Robinson, and 
others to put on the brakes to prevent political wreck. At 
this time the correspondents of the Eastern press were dis- 
trustful of Lane, and no men were so active and influential 
in defeating his nomination for governor as they. Espe- 
cially PhiUips and Redpath were untiring in their devotion 
to the ticket as nominated. 

The Herald of Freedotn of January ig, 1856, reports a 



222 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

meeting at which Colonel Lane presented a platform of 
principles diametrically opposed to his Nebraska resolution in 
the Constitutional Convention, and says that all the National 
Democrats endorsed it. The editor adds : 

" Kansas evidently is a healthy climate for the mind as well as body. 
The sophisms of the South cannot live here. Lawrence is a pool of 
Bethesda, into which, if the life-long invalid step, he is straightway made 
whole. Colonel Lane, for example, who came here with the squatter- 
phobia, of which he had been long and dangerously sick — having been 
bitten in Congress by Nebraska bill itself — and whose unfortunate con- 
stitution withstood every effort of Eastern political physicians to cure 
him — is now beginning to give evidences of speedy recovery — what he 
has hitherto denied — that he was deceived in imagining that squatter- 
phobia is a symptom of good health. We have no doubt, if our people 
take good care of him, that in less than a year he may be pronounced 
politically convalescent. If Colonel Lane adopts the Republican creed, 
he will make a valuable accession to the party. As yet, he has not 
done so ; but he must do so ere long, if he wishes to preserve a character 
for consistency." 

The winter of 1855-56 was one of preparation rather than 
of open demonstration. It is true, R. P. Brown, of Leaven- 
worth, was most brutally murdered, at an election held at 
Easton, by some drunken pro-slavery men. Brown had 
been prominent in the defense of Lawrence, and was one 
of the noblest men ever in Kansas. He was true as steel 
and brave as a hon, and hence was feared and hated by his 
opponents as were but few others. His murder was most 
cowardly. Its brutality was too much for Captain Martin, 
of the Kickapoo Rangers, who was at Easton and tried to 
save Brown from his fate, but the mob was too drunken and 
desperate to heed him or any one else. Nothing would answer 
but his death, and he fell a hero and martyr in a noble 
cause. 

Although on the surface there was general calm, mutter- 
ings of discontent, dissatisfaction, and preparation were oc- 
casionally heard, as of distant thunder before a storm, during 
the entire winter. Jones and the ultra Slave-State men were 



WINTER OF 1855-6. 223 

never satisfied with the outcome of the Wakarusa war, and 
openly declared that next time they would wait till Secretary 
Woodson should be acting governor, when they would have 
their own way. 

The Squatter Sovereign said : 

" We would it were within the range of the most liberal indulgence 
for us to express satisfaction with the adjustment of the difficulties 
which called so large a number of the squatter sovereigns from their 
firesides to encounter the inclemency of bleak December winds. 
* * * Had the matter rested with Mr. Jones, the Sheriff, the result 
would have been different. The criminals would have been traced to 
their hiding-places, and safely secured against the audacity of a set of 
God-forsaken fanatics. This would have given satisfaction, answered 
the purpose of the requisition, and fulfilled the ends of justice. As it is, 
base, cowardly, sneaking scoundrels will go unpunished, and be left 
free to perpetrate their infamous outrages wherever they may find an 
unprotected pro-slavery family." 

About the time of the murder of Brown, alarms of in- 
vasion from Missouri were frequent, causing some precau- 
tions to be taken by the Free-State men. Colonel Blood, 
in command of a squad of cavalry, visited Easton and 
vicinity to quiet the fears of the settlers in that neighbor- 
hood. Two dispatches were sent off to the President as 
follows : 

" Lawrence, January 21, 1856. 
" To Franklin Fierce, Fresident of U. S. A. 

" Sir : We have authentic information that an overwhelming force of 
the citizens of Missouri are organizing on our borders, amply supplied 
with artillery, for the avowed purpose of invading this Territory, de- 
molishing our towns, and butchering our unoffending Free-State citi- 
zens. 

" We respectfully demand on behalf of the citizens of Kansas, that 
the commandant of the United States troops be immediately instructed 
to interfere to prevent such an inhuman outrage." 

(Signed by Lane, Deitzler, Goodin, and Robinson-.) 

" Lawrence City, January 23, 1856. 
" To the Fresident pf the United States. 

" Sir: We notified you that an overwhelming force, supplied with 
artillery, were organizing on our border for the avowed purpose of in- 



224 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



vading Kansas, demolishing the towns, and butchering the unoffending 
Free-State citizens, and they constituting fourteen-twentieths of the en- 
tire population. We earnestly request you to issue your proclamation 
immediately, forbidding the invasion. We trust there may be no delay 
in taking so important a step to prevent an outrage which, if carried out 
as planned, will stand forth without a parallel in the world's history. 

" Yours respectfully." 
(Signed by Lane and Robinson.) 

It was well known that a movement was contemplated 
against Kansas, but the time could not be ascertained when 
the forces were to march. Meetings were being held in all the 
border counties, some of them delegate conventions embrac- 
ing all western Missouri. One such meeting was held at 
Lexington. Such was the threatening aspect that many 
Free-State men became anxious for the future, and there 
was danger that so many would leave in despair as to dis- 
courage such as might remain to meet the anticipated shock. 
At the time when the clouds were the most threatening a letter 
was received from Eli Thayer describing a new gun he was 
making of about an inch and a half calibre, which would 
carry several miles as accurately as the best rifle at a shorter 
range. This was to be breech-loading and with it every 
officer of the enemy's forces could be picked off before the 
battle should begin by the rank and file. This letter was 
read and re-read to squads and individuals, and it inspired 
great confidence in the drooping spirits of the despondent. 
Not only would such a weapon be of great importance, but 
the fact that the friends of Kansas were active in its be- 
half also gave great encouragement. A report at this time 
reached Kansas of a meeting held at Worcester, at which it 
appeared that General Pomeroy spoke, and many leading 
citizens of Worcester, among them Mr. Thayer, who offered 
to give ten Sharp's rifles in advance of the guns being made 
at his foundry, on condition the number should be made up 
to one hundred by the other citizens. A large sum was re- 
ported as pledged at the meeting. Also other cheering news 



PROCLAMATION OF THE PRESIDENT. 225 

was received from different Northern States showing the 
deep interest felt for the pioneers. 

As spring approached, various rumors reached Kansas 
from Washington. Governor Shannon, after the "war," 
repaired to the Capitol, where the situation might be dis- 
cussed without the formality of official correspondence. 
Washington letter-writers to the New York papers, such as 
the Ha-ald and Times, sent contradictory dispatches — one 
day that Governor Shannon on his return to Kansas would be 
instructed to arrest all the members of the State Government 
should it attempt to organize on the 4th of March, as con- 
templated, and the next day this report would be denied by 
one stating that the President would recognize the right of 
the Legislature to meet undistm-bed. Such was the agita- 
tion throughout the country both North and South, in some 
States appropriations being proposed or made to defray the 
expenses of men to be sent to Kansas, that the President 
issued his proclamation as follows : 

" Whereas, Indications exist that public tranquillity and the supremacy 
of the law in the Territory of Kansas are endangered by the reprehen- 
sible acts or purposes of persons both within and without the same, who 
propose to control and direct its political organizations by force ; it ap- 
pearing that combinations have been formed therein to resist the execu- 
tion of the territorial laws and thus, in effect, subvert by violence all 
present constitutional and legal authority; it also appearing that persons 
residing without this Territory, but near its borders, contcDiplate armed 
inteii'eittion in the affairs thereof; it also appearing that other persons, 
inhabitants of remote States, are collecting money and providing arms 
for the same purpose ; and it further appearing that combinations in the 
Territory are endeavoring by the agencies of emissaries and otherwise 
to induce individual States of the Union to interfere in the affairs 
thereof in violation of the Constitution of the United States ; and 
7vhereas, all such plans for the determination of the future institutions 
of the Territory, if carried into execution from or within the same, will 
constitute the fact of insurrection, and from without that of invasive ag- 
gression, and will in either case justify and require the forcible interpo- 
sition of the whole power of the general Government, as well to maintain 
the laws of the Territory as those of the Union : 

" Now, therefore, I, Franklin Pierce, President of the United States, 
15 



2 26 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

do issue this my proclamation, to command all persons engaged in un- 
lawful combinations against the co7tstituted authority of the Territoij of 
Kansas, or of the United States, to disperse and retire peaceably to 
their respective abodes, and to warn all such persons that an attempted 
insurrection in said Territory, or aggressive intrusion into the same, 
will be resisted, not only by the employment of the local militia, but 
also by that of any available force of the United States ; to the end of 
assuring immunity from violence and full protection to the persons, 
property, and civil rights of all peaceful and law-abiding inhabitants of 
the Territory. If in any part of the Union the fury of faction or fa- 
naticism, inflamed into disregard of the great principles of popular sov- 
ereignty, which, under the Constitution, are fundamental in the whole 
structure of our institutions, is to bring on the country the dire calamity 
of an arbitrament of arms in that Territory, it shall be between lawless 
violence on one side and conservative force on the other, wielded by legal 
authority of the general Government. 

" I call on the citizens, both of adjoining and of distant States, to ab- 
stain from unauthorized intermeddling in the local concerns of the Ter- 
ritory, admonishing them that its organic law is to be executed with 
impartial justice ; that all individual acts of illegal interference will incur 
condign punishment, and that any endeavor to interfere by organized 
force, will be firmly withstood. 

" I invoke all good citizens to promote order by rendering obedience 
to the law; to seek remedy for temporary evils by peaceful means ; to 
discountenance and repulse the counsels and the instigations of agitators 
and disorganizers, and to testify their attachment to their pride in its 
greatness, their appreciation of the blessings they enjoy, and their de- 
termination that republican institutions shall not fail in their hands by 
co-operating to uphold the majesty of the laws and to vindicate the 
sanctity of the Constitution. 

" In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the 
seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents. 

" Done at the City of Washington, eleventh day of February, one 
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, and of the Independence of the 
United States, the eightieth. 

" By the President. " FRANKLIN Pierce. 

"W. L. Marcy, Secretary of State." 



Governor Shannon also was clothed with authority to call 
on the officers at Fort Leavenworth whenever he might think 
best. 

Most frantic appeals were made to the South to furnish 



SOUTHERN APPEAL. 227 

men and money for the conflict, and widely circulated, both 
North and South. The Springfield, III, Journal, makes 
this reference to them : 

' ' In the Ahitional Intelligencer of a recent date, we find published a 
circular from the Kansas Emigration Society of Missouri, addressed to 
the people of the Southern States, some of the statements of which are 
well worthy the consideration of the people of the North. After direct- 
ing ' the attention of the people of the slave-holding States to the abso- 
lute necessity of immediate action on their part,' and the adoption of 
prompt and decisive measures in relation to the settlement of Kansas 
Territory, the circular makes the following acknowledgment : 

" ' The western counties of Missouri have for the last two years been 
heavily taxed, both in money and time, in fighting the battles of the 
South. Lafayette County alone has expended more than $100,000 in 
money, and as much more in time. Up to this time the border counties 
of Missouri have upheld and maintained the rights and interests of 
the South in this struggle unassisted, and not unsuccessfully. But the 
abolitionists, staking their all upon the Kansas issue, and hesitating at 
no means, fair or foul, are moving heaven and earth to render that beau- 
tiful Territory a " Free State." 

" ' Missouri, we feel confident, has done her duty, and will still be 
found ready and willing to do all she can, fairly and honorably, for the 
maintenance of the integrity of the South. But the time has come when 
she can no longer stand up single-handed, the lone champion of the 
South, against the myrmidons of the entire North. It requires no fore- 
sight to perceive that if the " higher law " men succeed in this crusade, 
it will be but the commencement of a war upon the institutions of the 
South, which will continue until slavery shall cease to exist in any of 
the States, or the Union is dissolved. 

" ' The great struggle will come off at the next election, in October, 
1856, and unless the South can at that time maintain her ground, all 
will be lost. We repeat it, the crisis has arrived. The time has come 
for action — bold, determined action. Words will no longer do any good ; 
we must have men in Kansas, and that by tens of thousands. A few 
will not answer. If we should need ten thousand and lack one of that 
number, all will count nothing. Let all, then, who can come do so at 
once. Those who cannot come must give their money to help others to 
come. There are hundreds of thousands of broad acres of rich lands, 
worth from $5 to $20 per acre, and open to settlement and pre-emption 
at $1.25 per acre. Shall we allow these rich lands and this beautiful 
country to be overrun by our abolition enemies? We tell you now, 
and tell you frankly, that unless you come quickly, and come by thou- 
sands, we are gone. The elections once lost are lost forever.' " 



228 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

The State Legislature assembled on the 4th of March, 
1856, according to the provision of the Constitution, with- 
out interruption. Both Houses were organized, a message 
was delivered, and Reeder and Lane elected United States 
Senators. A codifying committee was appointed to prepare 
bills for future action, when the Legislature adjourned to the 
4th of July, 1856, after adopting a memorial to Congi-ess 
asking for admission into the Union as a State. 

The constitution and memorial were taken to Washington 
by Senator elect Lane and dehvered to General Cass of the 
Senate and Daniel Mace of the House. Galusha A. Grow 
prepared a bill for the admission of Kansas into the Union 
which passed the House July 3, 1856, by a vote of 99 to 
97, but it failed to pass the Senate. 

The committee to visit Kansas in the interest of the con- 
test for the seat of territorial delegate was appointed March 
19, 1856, consisting, as before stated, of Messrs. Howard 
and Sherman, Republicans, and Oliver of Missouri, Demo- 
crat. They arrived in Kansas on the i8th of April and 
proceeded to take testimony relative to the troubles in the 
Territory previous to their appointment. The committee, 
after taking a large volume of testimony, reported as follows : 

"MAJORITY REPORT. 

" Your committee report the following facts and conclusions as es- 
tablished by the testimony : 

''First. That each election in the Territory, held under the organic 
or alleged territorial law, has been carried by organized invasion from 
the State of Missouri, by which the people of the Territory have been 
prevented from exercising the rights secured to them by the organic 
law. 

"Second. That the alleged Territorial Legislature was an illegally 
constituted body, and had no power to pass valid laws, and their enact- 
ments are therefore null and void. 

"Third. That these alleged laws have not, as a general thing, been 
used to protect persons and property, and to punish MTong, but for un- 
lawful purposes. 

"Fourth. That the election under which the sitting delegate, John 
\V. Whitfield, holds his seat, was not held in pursuance of any valid 



COMMITTEE S REPORT. 229 

law, and that it should only be regarded as the expression of the choice 
of these residents who voted for him. 

''Fifth. That the election under which the contesting delegate, An- 
drew H. Reeder, claims his seat, was not held in pursuance of law, and 
that it should be regarded only as the expression of the resident citi- 
zens who voted for him. 

"Sixth. That Andrew H. Reeder received a greater number of votes 
of resident citizens than John W. Whitfield for delegate. 

"Seventh. That in the present condition of the Territory a fair elec- 
tion cannot be held without a new census, a stringent and well-guarded 
election law, the selection of impartial judges and the presence of 
United States troops at every place of election. 

"Eighth. That the various elections held by the people of the Ter- 
ritory preliminary to the formation of the State Government have been 
as regular as the disturbed condition of the Territory would allow ; 
and that the constitution passed by the convention held in pursuance of 
said elections embodies the will of a majority of the people. 

"As it is not the province of your committee to suggest remedies for 

the existing troubles in the Territory of Kansas, they content themselves 

with the foregoing statement of facts. 

" All of which is respectfully submitted. ,, ,,^ . tt 

^ ^ W. A. Howard, 

"John Sherman." 

" MINORITY REPORT. 

" In conclusion, the undersigned begs to report the following facts 
and conclusions, as he believes established by the testimony and sanc- 
tioned by law : 

"First. That the first election held in the Territory under the or- 
ganic act, for delegate to Congress, General John W. Whitfield received 
a plurality of the legal votes cast, and was duly elected as such delegate, 
as stated in the majority report. 

"Second. That the Territorial Legislature was a legally constituted 
body, and had power to pass valid laws, and their enactments were 
therefore valid. 

"Third. That these laws when appealed to have been used for the 
protection of life, liberty, and property, and for the maintenance of law 
and order in the Territory. 

"Fourth. That the election under which the sitting delegate, John 
W. Whitfield, was held was in pursuance of valid law, and should be 
regarded as a valid election. 

"Fifth. That as said Whitfield, at said election, received a large 
number of legal votes without opposition, he was duly elected as a 
delegate in this body, and is entitled to a seat on this floor as such. 



230 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

"Sixth. That the election under which the contesting delegate, 
Andrew H. Reeder, claims his seat, was not held under any law, but 
in contemptuous disregard of all law, and that it should only be re- 
garded as the expression of a band of malcontents and revolutionists by 
the House. 

" Sevetith. As to whether or not Andrew H. Reeder received a 
greater number of votes of resident citizens on the 9th than J. W. 
Whitfield did on the ist of October, 1855, no testimony was taken by 
the committee, so far as the undersigned knows, nor is it material to 
the issue. 

" All of which is respectfully submitted. 

" M. Oliver." 

The House voted to declare the seat vacant by 1 1 o yeas 
to 92 nays, neither admitting Whitfield nor Reeder. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE marshal's INVASION OF LAWRENCE, MAY 21, 1 856, 

SHOOTING OF JONES. AN OFFICIAL RIOT. ARREST OF 

ROBINSON. PROTEST TO PRESIDENT. REEDER's ESCAPE. 

Another scene in the tragedy called "popular sover- 
eignty " was to be enacted in the spring of 1856. This was 
to be a second edition of the Wakarusa war, with only a 
change of scene and characters. The Free-State men had 
no new moves to make, as their policy had already been 
adopted, and they had only to hold their ground and fill 
the Territory with Free-State voters and have them in readi- 
ness for the election of a Territorial Legislature to be held 
in 1857. In the meantime they had only to "thwart, 
baffle, and circumvent " the Slave-State party in establishing 
slavery in Kansas by means of the legislation resulting from 
the invasion of the 30th of March, 1855. As in the fall of 
1855, so now, the game on the Slave-State side was to get 
the Free-State men pitted against Federal authority. Gen- 
eral Whitfield wrote to his friend Clark, who shot Barber, 
as follows: 

" Washington, ist March, 1856. 

" My Dear Clark : I assure you I have not forgotten our mutual 
friend, Dr. Rodrique. I have sent him seeds, documents, etc. One 
thing you perhaps are not aware of, that two-thirds of the seeds are 
stolen, and having to pass through that Hell Hole (Lawrence) it is rea- 
sonable to suppose that nearly all are stolen there. Say to the Doctor 
that his name is on my special list. Clark, you have no idea of the work 
I have to do in addition to my labors as delegate. I must confess that 
Reeder and his army of abolitionists give me some trouble. I have 
thrown him twice, and I think I will give him another tip. I feel cer- 
tain they have despaired of his getting a seat, and only hope to send the 
election back. The last move is to send for persons and papers ; one 
object is to pay his iarmy of abolitionists that he has here. I think, 



232 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

though, he will be defeated, and a commissioner will be sent out. If 
so, I will get S. F. Woodson and others to take depositions. I have 
labored hard every day since I left Kansas to induce Southern men to 
go to Kansas, and I have strong hopes that we shall have a large emi- 
gration. Our friends should meet and appoint committees in every town 
to attend to them on their arrival. 

" Shannon is with you, I hope, before this, with full and ample 
power to put down the abolitionists in the Territory. We think here 
that Mr. Pierce comes up to the scratch nobly. Your humble servant 
is charged with figuring in getting up the message. One thing certain, 
Clark, if they attempt to fight Uncle Sam's boys, the ball is open, and 
civil war is inevitable. If so, you will see me in Kansas. You can 
command me here at any and all times. 

" Yours truly, 

" J. W. Whitfield." 

" One thing certain, Clark, if they attempt to fight Uncle 
Sam's boys, the ball is open, and civil war is inevitable." 

Yes, yes! But fortunately the Free-State men were as 
well aware of this fact as Whitfield, and there was more 
prospect of getting the Slave-State men in collision with 
Uncle Sam's boys than the Free-State men, unless by acci- 
dent or disregard of orders. 

The preliminary skirmish was by " SherifiF " Jones, who 
appeared at Lawrence, April 19th, to arrest S. N. Wood, who 
had returned from the East where he had been lecturing on 
Kansas affairs. Wood was to be arrested as one of the 
Branson rescuers. Although at first submitting to an arrest, 
the bystanders good-naturedly jostled him away from Jones, 
leaving the Sheriff to return to Lecompton without his pris- 
oner. The next day, Sunday, he returned with additional 
writs, and called for a posse to enable him to serve them. 
But the citizens were desirous of attending church, or were 
otherwise inclined, and proved very inefficient as a posse. 
However, Jones seeing S. F. Tappan, another Branson res- 
cuer, somewhat roughly attempted to arrest him, when Tap- 
pan struck him in the face. This answered every purpose, 
and Jones called upon Governor Shannon as aforetime for 
assistance. Shannon promptly furnished a Heutenant and 



SHOOTING OF JONES. 233 

six United States soldiers. With these Jones again visited 
Lawrence, but not to meet with resistance. The soldier's 
uniform was a safe passport in any Free-State community. 
However, such as did not desire arrest were invisible and 
no one seemed to know where they were, or if so, would 
not tell. Wood, especially, was not found, and Jones con- 
cluded to spend the night at Lawrence in the officer's tent. 
Some person, in violation of the policy and wishes of the 
Free-State party, shot Jones in his tent, the ball striking him 
between the shoulders. This was a very impolitic act, and 
was just what was wanted to arouse the Slave-State party 
to the highest pitch of enthusiasm for their cause. Their 
papers announced that Jones had been killed in the hated 
town of Lawrence, and war had aheady commenced. The 
people held a meeting and denounced the outrage in severe 
terms, and offered a reward of $500 for the arrest and pun- 
ishment of the criminal. The following correspondence will 
show how the matter was viewed by Colonel Sumner and 
the public : 

" Headquarters First Cavalry, 

" Camp near Lawrence, April 27, 1856. 

" Sir: As there are no municipal officers in the town of Lawrence, 
I think proper to address you before returning to my post. The recent 
attempt made upon the life of Sheriff Jones will produce great excite- 
ment throughout the Territory and on the Missouri frontier, and I con- 
sider it of the utmost importance that every effort should be made by 
your people to ferret out and bring to justice the cowardly assassin. It 
is not too much to say that the peace of the country may depend on it, 
for, if he is not arrested, the act will be charged by the opposite party 
upon your whole community. This affair has been reported to Wash- 
ington, and whatever orders may be received will be instantly carried 
into effect. The proclamation which requires obedience to the laws of 
the Territory as they now stand until legally abrogated, will certainly 
be maintained, and it is very unsafe to give heed to people at a distance 
who counsel resistance. If they were here to participate in the danger, 
they would probably take a different view of this matter. 
" I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" E. V. Sumner, 
" Colonel First Cavalry Commanding. 

" To Air. Charles Robinson.''' 



234 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" REPLY. 

"Lawrence, K. T., April 27, 1856. 

" Sir: Your note of this morning is received, and in answer permit 
me to say that the cowardly attack upon Mr. Jones receives no counte- 
nance whatever from the citizens of Lawrence, but, on the contrary, 
meets with universal condemnation, and if the guilty party can be found, 
he will most certainly be given over to justice. It is and has been the 
policy of the people of Lawrence to yield prompt obedience to the lav/s 
and officers of the Federal Government, and as Mr. Jones was acting 
with the authority of that Government on the day of the assault, the 
guilty party was an enemy to the citizens of Lawrence no less than a 
violator of the laws. The people of Lawrence are without any organ- 
ized municipal government, and consequently no person or persons can 
speak or act officially for them, but from what I know of their feelings 
and disposition, I have no hesitation in saying that they will ever be 
found loyal citizens of the Government, and ready to do all in their 
power to maintain the laws of their country. As an evidence of the 
public sentiment of this community, I enclose a copy of the proceedings 
of a public meeting held on the morning after the unfortunate affair oc- 
curred. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" Charles Robinson. 

" Colonel E. V. Stcniticr.'''' 

Although Jones was not fatally injured he was disabled for 
a time, and his duties devolved upon Deputy Sheriff Salter. 

After this, preparations on a more elaborate scale were 
made to subdue the hated rebels. The District Court was 
held the second week in May, and Chief Justice Lecompte 
foreshadowed the plan in his charge to the jury. Among 
other things he said : 

" This Territory was organized by an act of Congress, and so far its 
authority is from the United States. It has a Legislature elected in 
pursuance of that organic act. This Legislature, being an instrument of 
Congress by which it governs the Territory, has passed laws. These 
laws, therefore, are of United States authority and making, and all who 
resist these . laws resist the power and authority of the United States, 
and are therefore guilty of high treason. Nom', gentlemen, if you find 
that any person has resisted these laws, then you must, under your 
oaths, find bills against them for high treason. If you find that no such 
resistance has been made, but that combinations have been formed for 
the purpose of resisting them, and individuals of notoriety have been 
aiding and abetting in such combinations, then must you find bills for 
constructive treason.'''' 



TREASON INDICTMENT. 235 

As Lane and Brown had failed to use the force at Law- 
rence against the Federal, or any other authority, no treasoji 
could be discovered ; and as the force at Lawrence was 
organized for purely defensive purposes, not even construct- 
ive treason could be successfully charged. This charge to 
the jury was conclusive evidence of the programme, and the 
trap was ingeniously set, but it was in full view of the bird 
to be caught and proved to be in vain. The plan was well 
laid. As treason was supposed not to be a bailable offense, 
an indictment would enable them to place in confinement 
all such persons as were not wanted to run at large. Ac- 
cordingly, Reeder, Deitzler, G. W. Brown, G. W. Smith, 
Gains Jenkins, and Robinson were indicted, and all but 
Reeder, who escaped in disguise, shut up or confined on the 
prairie. Lane and S. N. Wood were also indicted, but not 
arrested. As the plan was to bring the Free-State men in 
conflict with " Uncle Sam's boys," and as Wood had led the 
rescue of Branson, and Lane and John Brown tried to lead 
an attack upon the Governor's militia, they were supposed 
to be of more use running at large than in confinement. 
All the men arrested, except, perhaps, Robinson, were cool, 
sagacious, and conservative, and could not be driven to take 
a false position. The same is true of S. N. Wood, though 
the Slave-State men did not know that fact. But before 
any indictments were found, the Free-State men were put in 
possession of the purposes of their opponents and hence 
were not taken unawares. James F. Legate, one of the 
Grand Jury, met Howard and Sherman of the Congres- 
sional Committee, and Reeder and Robinson, at or near 
Tecumseh, and divulged the plan as foreshadowed in the 
Grand Jury room. This plan contemplated the indictment 
not only of those active in the defense of Lawrence for 
treason, but of all persons connected with the State Gov- 
ernment, whether State officers or members of the Leg- 
islature. Such as resided in Douglas County were to be in- 
dicted by the jury then in session, and the others would be 



236 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

indicted when the court should convene in Shawnee County, 
where the Legislature had met and organized. The night 
after receiving this information Howard, Sherman, Reeder, 
Roberts, Mrs. Sherman, Mrs. Robinson, and Robinson held 
a " council of war " in the Garvey House, which continued 
till nearly daylight. A full and free discussion of the situ- 
ation was had and this conclusion reached, namely, that in 
the execution of the plan of the Slave-State men there was a 
possibility of a geneal conflict of arms ; that should it be 
impossible to avoid such conflict without a surrender of the 
Free-State cause, it must be met, and if met the Free-State 
men should take issue rather in defense of the State organiza- 
tion than offensively against the territorial. In view of such 
a contingency it would be necessary to have the sympathy 
and aid of the people of the Northern States, and they must 
be informed of what might occur. It was decided at this 
council that Robinson was the proper person to send East 
to visit the governors and other sympathizers ; and, as there 
had been no law passed by the State Legislature that could 
be used in such contingency, it was decided that if it were 
thought necessary to use the State Government, Lieutenant- 
Governor Roberts should convene the Legislature before the 
court should sit in Shawnee County, that militia, habeas cor- 
pus and such other laws as might be needed should be passed. 
Robinson would complete his mission and return at the con- 
vening of the Legislature. He was desired also to carry 
with him the testimony already taken by the Congressional 
Committee as there was great danger that it might be seized 
and destroyed. As no indictments had yet been found by 
the Grand Jury, no interference was anticipated with Rob- 
inson, at least before his return. Accordingly, he started 
on his mission the 9th day of May, with Mrs. Robinson, 
without concealment or disguise. But a general pro-slavery 
convention had been held at Lexington not long before, 
where doubtless the plan of campaign had been matured, 
and it was there known that Robinson was to be indicted, 



ARREST OF ROBINSON, 237 

if he had not already been, and he was arrested on pretense 
of being a fugitive from justice. It happened in this wise. 
Having spent one night in consultation at Topeka with the 
Congressional Committee ; another at Lawrence in consul- 
tation with leading Free-State men, and a third at Kansas 
City with Kersey Coates, as soon as Robinson could get to 
his state-room on the steamboat, anticipating no interference 
of any kind, he improved the occasion for a sound sleep. 
He was thus occupied when on arriving at Lexington he 
was aroused by loud raps at the door of his room. On 
opening it he was confronted by some gentlemen, who in- 
formed him they were appointed a committee to notify him 
that he must leave the boat at that place. On inquiring of 
them the name of the place and why he must stop there, he 
was told that the place was Lexington, and the people had 
understood he was a fugitive from justice. Robinson said 
he had heard of no indictment as yet found, that he had 
been openly in the Territory and was going to the States on 
business and not as a fugitive. On being told that a large 
number of people were on the boat and drinking freely at 
the bar, Robinson desired to address them, as he was sure 
he could satisfy them they had no business to interfere with 
him. To this the committee decidedly objected, as the mob 
would not listen to reason from any one, much less from 
him. It appearing that force would be used if necessary, 
Robinson referred the matter to Mrs. Robinson, whether to 
use such means of defense as he had — one revolver — or go 
with the committee, when she promptly repHed, " They will 
kill you if you go, and you may as well make a stand 
here." But the committee assured her that no harm should 
come to her husband, they would pledge their honor and 
lives if need be for his protection, if he would go with them ; 
when Mrs. R. withdrew her objection, and both left the boat, 
avoiding the crowd at the bar. The landing was covered 
with people, but there was no disturbance, and the prisoners 
with their baggage were taken to Judge Sawyer's, who was 



238 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

afterwards a member of Congress. He had resided in Fitch- 
burg, Massachusetts, where he had studied law, and treated 
his prisoner more like a prince than a fugitive from justice. 
At night a boat came down the river and remained till morn- 
ing. A gentleman on board, learning that a man by the 
name of Robinson was held as prisoner in Lexington, called 
at Judge Sawyer's place to see him. On being admitted he 
proved to be Dr. R. H. McDonald, the " Vinegar Bitters " 
man, now a millionaire, who was the physician of Sacra- 
mento County in 1850, and extracted the ball from Robin- 
son's body when he was shot in the squatter riot of that 
year. His first salutation was, " Well, it is you, sure 
enough ! When I heard a man with your name was a pris- 
oner I thought it must be you, as you are always in some 
scrape." 

As Mrs. R. was not regarded as a fugitive from justice, 
or labor, she was permitted to go on her journey, taking 
with her the testimony of the committee. 

Judge Sawyer informed his prisoner that two men from 
the country tried one day to get up a mob to lynch him, 
but when it was proposed to turn Robinson into the street 
against these two men with the same kind of weapons they 
should have, they subsided and nothing more was heard of 
lynching. 

As no indictment had been found against Robinson, he 
was held in Lexington about a week while messengers could 
go to Lecompton for an indictment, and to the Governor of 
Missouri with a requisition from Governor Shannon after it 
should be found by the Grand Jury, which could furnish any 
indictment to order on short notice. In this case it was for 
usurpation of ofifice on account of having been elected Gov- 
ernor under the State constitution. The treason indictment 
came later. 

At length, the Deputy United States Marshal Preston 
appeared at Lexington, armed and equipped with requi- 
sition, posse, revolvers, and conveyance. The route by land 



ARRIVAL AT WESTPORT. 239 

instead of river was taken, and soon Westport was reached, 
where a halt was made. Soon after entering the hotel, the 
prisoner was called upon by W. H. Russell, a lawyer who 
was employed in California by the squatters in their land 
conflicts. He was now a resident of Missouri, had heard of 
the arrest of a man by the name of Robinson, and called to 
see if it was his old chent indicted for murder, etc., in 
Sacramento. He was ready to be employed again if de- 
sired, and engaged in the case. One question he wished to 
ask. He said there was a man by the name of Hayes now at 
Westport who had some slaves taken from him in Cahfornia 
on a writ of habeas corpus by a man named Robinson. He 
was very bitter, and swore that if the prisoner was that Rob- 
inson he would shoot him on sight. Russell desired to 
know the facts, and if the prisoner had nothing to do with 
the matter he would like to know it. Robinson informed 
him that while in California he had nothing to do with 
such a case, but had heard of a man of the same name with 
a family who was connected with the freeing of some. slaves. 
However, Hayes proposed to investigate the matter for 
himself, and took his position at the foot of the stairs as the 
prisoner descended for his dinner. No demonstration, how- 
ever, was made except a mutual stare as the dining-room 
was entered. At Westport, Robinson sent for Colonel Ker- 
sey Coates, and retained him as attorney. From him Robin- 
son learned the situation at Lawrence, which had not yet been 
entered by the Marshal's posse of eight hundred men. On 
his way East Colonel Coates had given Robinson the result 
of an interview with a man connected with the Blue Lodges, 
and at Robinson's request had imparted that information to 
the people at Lawrence, with the advice that under no cir- 
cumstances should Federal authority be resisted. Here, 
with proper caution, was an opportunity for gaining a grand 
victory. If the United States Marshal, or any other officer 
under sanction of the Federal authority, would enter Law- 
rence unresisted and execute such writs as were in contem- 



240 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

plation, it would be a victory against the bogus laws and 
officials, including the President of the United States, that 
could not be achieved by a hundred battles and the killing 
of thousands of men. The infamy would be unparalleled, 
and the more wanton and extensive the outrage, the greater 
the victory to the Free-State cause. Colonel Coates agreed 
fully with this view. 

Governor Shannon, in a letter to the Secretary of State, gave 
his view of the rebels and the rebellion in part as follows : 

" I herewith transmit a certified copy, marked No. 8, of evidence 
that was elicited by the Grand Jury of Jefferson County, at their last 
term, in relation to a secret, oath-bound military organization, which 
exists in this Territory. It will be perceived that it is different and 
much more dangerous than the one which was exposed some time since. 
I have satisfactory information that this secret organization exists in 
the East, and that by means of the signs and grips the new emigrants 
from the East are enabled to recognize their fellow-members in this 
Territory to whom personally they are unknown. I am now able to 
state, upon reliable information, the whole plan of resistance to the ter- 
ritorial laws and their execution, which has been adopted by those who 
pretend to deny their validity. This plan is well understood and sup- 
ported by a dangerous, secret, oath-bound organization of men who, it is 
believed, from the manifestations and threats already made, will be un- 
scrupulous as to the use of means to accomplish their objects. The 
plan is this : whenever an officer, whether United States marshal, sheriff, 
or constable, shall attempt to execute a writ or process issued under 
any territorial law, aided and assisted by a posse of United States troops, 
he is to be evaded, but not openly resisted. Should an attempt be made 
by any officer to execute any writ or process issued under the laws of 
this Territory, unaided by a posse of United States troops, he is to be 
resisted by force at all hazards. There is a determined purpose to carry 
out this programme, regardless of all consequences, and the country is 
filled with armed men, the greater portion of whom have recently arrived 
in the Territory, ready to carry out this plan by force of arms. It will 
be obvious to the President that, if every officer of the Government 
charged with the execution of legal process, issued under, and to enforce 
the territorial laws, is compelled to call on a military posse of United 
States troops to aid in executing the law, that the territorial Govern- 
ment will be practically nullified. It will be impossible to collect the 
taxes assessed for county or territorial purposes if this plan of resistance 
should be successful. 



SHANNON TO MARCY. 24 1 

' ' Indeed, the people of the Territory will not submit to it without an 
attempt at least to enforce the laws against all. There is now in the 
town of Lawrence an arsenal well supplied with all the munitions of 
war, which have been purchased in the East and secretly introduced into 
that place. They have ten pieces of artillery, at least one thousand 
stand of Sharp's rifles, and a large supply of revolvers. There are said 
to be about five hundred men in the town of Lawrence at this time who 
refuse to submit to the territorial laws, and who openly declare that no 
officer shall execute any process issued under these laws without being 
resisted by force. A large portion of the country people who took an 
active part with the citizens of Lawrence in the difficulty last fall seem 
to hold themselves entirely aloof from the difficulties with which we are 
now threatened, and are now open in their denunciations of C. Robin- 
son and his party. But the recent emigrants from the East (with some 
exceptions, of course) seem determined to provoke a civil conflict. The 
law-and-order party of the Territory so far seem determined, on the 
other hand, to avoid this calamity. But it is in vain to conceal the fact 
that we are threatened on all sides with most serious difficulties, and 
that a dangerous crisis is rapidly approaching. Sheriff Jones had a very 
extensive acquaintance not only in this Territory, but also in the border 
counties in Missouri, where he formerly resided, and was universally 
respected and esteemed as a high-minded, honorable, and brave man. 
The dastardly attempt to assassinate him while in the discharge and for 
the performance of his official duties, connected with the threats openly 
made of assassination against others, and the firm conviction in the pub- 
lic mind that this is a part of a settled policy, to be carried out through 
the agency of a secret order or organization, have already produced 
strong feeling of excitement throughout the whole country, which is 
rapidly on the increase, and it is difficult to see at this time where it 
will end. Large parties, both from the North and South, are daily 
arriving with pre-existing prejudices and hostile feelings, which will 
greatly increase the difficulty of preserving the peace of this Territory. 
" I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

" zz TTr T nr '> " Wilson Shannon. 

Hon. II . L. Many. 

While the statements relative to secret organizations and 
arms and men at Lawrence are greatly exaggerated, the pur- 
pose on the part of the Free-State men to thwart and baffle 
territorial officials unaided by Federal authority, so as to 
make the bogus enactments a dead letter, is correctly stated. 
The object was not only to prevent any advantage to slavery 
from being gained by the usurpation, but, by compelling 
16 



242 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

a resort to United States troops, or United States militia 
or marshal's posse to serve every warrant, however trifling, 
to hold the fraudulent government up to the contempt 
of all people, and so to harass the Administration that it 
would be glad to get out of the difficulty by insuring or 
permitting a fair election for the next Legislature, to be 
chosen in the fall of 1857. It was thus immaterial how 
many printing presses, hotels, and bridges were indicted 
and destroyed, or how many men should be killed in the 
operation, so that the responsibility could be placed upon 
the Federal authority. Of course, the destruction of Hfe 
and property under any circumstances, would be a misfort- 
une to such as might suffer, but every such outrage would 
react against the usurpation with more force than a pitched 
battle. In fact, could the Administration plead the least 
armed resistance to Federal authority, the justification of the 
officers would be complete, and the reaction would be 
against the Free-State men. This was, in one sense, a state 
of war, but unlike any other war known to history, inasmuch 
as the more outrages the people could get the Government 
to perpetrate upon them, the more victories they would gain, 
and this simply because the field of battle embraced the 
entire country, and the chief victories at this stage were to 
be moral, political, and national. 

To show what desperate efforts were made by the officials 
to exasperate the Free-State men, and drive them to take 
position against Federal authority, the following memorial 
is given, as sent to the President, setting forth the whole 
case from the settlers' point of view. But two things were 
done which might as well have been omitted ; one was the 
expression, " we make no resistance to the execution of the 
laws, national or territorial." Had they stopped at the 
word " laws," leaving every person at liberty to reject as 
laws the bogus enactments, the expression would have been 
generally endorsed. Also, the voluntary delivery of the 
howitzer to Jones was uncalled for and did no good. With 



MEMORIAL TO PRESIDENT. 243 

these exceptions the memorial is a representative docu- 
ment : 

"MEMORIAL TO THE PRESIDENT FROM INHABITANTS 
OF KANSAS. 

" To his Excellency Franklin Piejre, President 0/ tlte United States. 

" Sir: The undersigned residents of Kansas Territory, and a com- 
mittee of the citizens of the town of Lawrence and vicinity, appointed 
to represent to your Excellency the insufferable wrongs which they are 
called upon to endure at the hands of territorial officials, and to petition 
for redress and prevention of the same. 

"The statements made in this communication are of facts mostly 
within our personal knowledge, and all of them we are prepared at any 
time to substantiate by testimony conclusive and unimpeachable. 

" The first of the recent great outrages on the town of Lawrence of 
which we complain is the following proclamation of the United States 
Marshal of Kansas Territory : 

" • PROCLAMATION. 

" ' To the People of Kansas Territory : 

" ' Whereas, certain judicial writs of arrest have been directed to me 
by the First District Court of the United States, etc., to be executed 
within the County of Douglas ; and, whereas, an attempt to execute them 
by the United States Deputy Marshal was violently resisted by a large 
number of citizens of Lawrence ; and as there is every reason to believe 
that any attempt to execute these writs will be resisted by a large body 
of armed men : 

" ' Now, therefore, the law-abiding citizens of the Territory are com- 
manded to be and appear at Lecompton as soon as practicable, and in 
numbers sufficient for the proper execution of the law. 

" ' Given under my hand, this nth day of May, 1856. 

" ' I. B. DONELSON, 

" ' United States Marshal for Kansas Territory.' 

" The allegations contained in this proclamation are untrue in fact, 
as well as grossly unjust in effect to the people of Lawrence. 

" A demonstration has been made by the Deputy Marshal towards 
the arrest ofi ex-Governor Reeder, while here in attendance on the Con- 
gressional Committee ; but as the latter demurred to the legality of the 
process, and denied the jurisdiction, the attempt was not made. This 
was a circumstance involving no violence on the part of the citizens of 
Lawrence ; as no posse was called for by the official, it is clear that they 
can in no way be held accountable for any of its results. No actual 



244 "^^^ KANSAS CONFLICT. 

effort to arrest any person in Lawrence had been made by the Marshal 
previous to this proclamation. 

" At this time there were in the Territory many hundreds of men 
who had entered it in organized companies from Southern States, actu- 
ated by an avowed political purpose, and proclaiming a deadly hostility 
to the town of Lawrence. These men were immediately enrolled in the 
Marshal's posse, and supplied by the Governor with arms belonging to 
the United States, and intended for the use of the territorial militia. 
All the facts warrant the belief that it was the intention of the Marshal, 
by this proclamation, to justify this misuse of these national arms, and 
to give, as far as possible, to the outrages being perpetrated by these 
companies, the sacred sanction of the law. Without this sanction it 
was known that these outrages would be resisted by any and all means 
of defense in the power of an indignant, and not yet enslaved people. 
This posse of the Marshal was further increased by accessions from the 
neighboring State of Missouri, and supplied from the same source with 
several pieces of artillery. Camps were formed at different points along 
the highways and on the Kansas River, and peaceful travellers subjected 
to detention, robbery, and insult. Men were stopped in the streets and 
on the open prairie, and bidden to stand and deliver their purses at the 
peril of their lives. Cattle, provisions, arms, and other property were 
taken wherever found, without consent of the owners. Men vi^ere 
choked from their horses, which were seized by the marauders, and 
houses were broken open and pillaged of their contents. 

" Resistance to these outrages was followed by further violence, and 
in some cases by the most wanton and brutal sacrifice of life. The pas- 
sage of the United States mail was frequently interrupted, and exam- 
inations made in defiance of law. In the border counties of Missouri, 
citizens of Lawrence were seized without warrant, conveyed to the va- 
rious camps, and there subjected to detention and unlawful trial, accom- 
panied by threats of immediate death. 

" In the meantime these alarming demonstrations have excited appre- 
hension in the community, and a letter was sent to the Governor as fol- 
lows : 

" ' Lawrence City, May ii, 1856. 

" ' Dear Sir: The undersigned are charged with the duty of com- 
municating to your Excellency the following preamble and resolution, 
adopted at a public meeting of the citizens of this place at seven o'clock 
last evening, viz. : 

" ' Whereas, We have the most reliable information from various 
parts of the Territory, and the adjoining State of Missouri, of the or- 
ganization of guerilla bands, who threaten the destruction of our town 
and its citizens : therefore, 

" 'Resolved, That Messrs. Topliff, Hutchinson, and Roberts consti- 



MEMORIAL. 



245 



tute a committee to inform his Excellency, Governor Shannon, of these 
facts, and to call upon him, in the name of the people of Lawrence, for 
protection against such bands by the United States troops at his dis- 
posal. 

" ' All of which is respectfully submitted, 

" ' Very truly, etc., 

" ' C. W. TOPLIFF, 

" ' W. Y. Roberts, 
" ' John Hutchinson. 
" ^ His Excellency Wilson Shannoti, Governor of Kansas Territory.^ 

" This letter drew forth the following reply: 

" ' Executive Office, Lecompton, K. T., May 12, 1856. 

" ' Gentlemen : Your note of the nth instant is received, and in 
reply I have to state that there is no force around or approaching Law- 
rence except the legally constituted posse of the United States Marshal 
and Sheriff of Douglas County, each of whom, I am informed, has a 
number of writs in his hands for execution against persons now in Law- 
rence. I shall in no way interfere with either of these officers in the 
discharge of their official duties. 

" ' If the citizens of Lawrence submit themselves to the territorial 
laws, and aid and assist the Marshal and Sheriff in the execution of pro- 
cess in their hands, as all good citizens are bound to do when called on, 
they, or all such, will entitle themselves to the protection of the law. 
But so long as they keep up a military or armed organization to resist 
the territorial laws, and the officers charged with their execution, I shall 
not interpose to save them from legitimate consequences of their illegal 
acts. 

" ' I have the honor to be, yours, with great respect, 
" ' Wilson Shannon. 

" ' jVessrs. C. JV. Topliff, John Hutchinson, W. Y. Roberts: 

" In commenting upon this letter, we have only to say that the im- 
plied charge upon the citizens of Lawrence of keeping up 'a military or 
armed organization to resist the territorial laws, and the officers charged 
with their executions,' is utterly untrue ; and that Governor Shannon 
must have been fully aware of its falsity, or ignorant to a degree of 
criminality. 

' ' The proclamation of the Marshal was not made public by him in 
Lawrence ; but a copy having by chance reached the town, another 
meeting of citizens was called on the 13th of May, and the following 
preamble and resolution adopted : 

" ' Whereas, By a proclamation to the people of Kansas Territory, 



246 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

by I. B. Donelson, United States Marshal for said Territory, issued the 
nth day of May, 1856, it is alleged that certain " judicial writs of ar- 
rest have been directed to him by the First District Court of the United 
States, etc., to be executed within the County of Douglas, and that an 
attempt to execute them by the United States Deputy Marshal was vio- 
lently resisted by a large number of the citizens of Lawrence, and that 
there is every reason to believe that any attempt to execute these writs 
will be resisted by a large body of armed men " ; therefore, 

" ' Resolved, By this public meeting of the citizens of Lawrence, held 
this 13th day of May, 1856, that the allegations and charges against us 
contained in the aforesaid proclamation are wholly untrue in fact, and 
the conclusion entirely false which is drawn therefrom. The aforesaid 
Deputy Marshal was resisted in no manner whatsoever, nor by any per- 
son whatever, in the execution of said writs, except by him whose ar- 
rest the said Deputy Marshal was seeking to make. And that we now, 
as we have done heretofore, declare our willingness and determination, 
without resistance, to acquiesce in the service upon us of any judicial 
writs against us by the United States Marshal for Kansas Territory, 
and will furnish him a posse for that purpose, if so requested ; but that 
we are ready to resist, if need be unto death, the ravages and desola- 
tion of an invading mob. 

" 'J. A. Wakefield, President. 

" 'John Hutchinson, Secretary.' 

" The indications of an intended attack upon the town continuing to 
increase, on the 14th instant another meeting of citizens was called, of 
which G. W. Deitzler was president and J. H. Green secretary, and the 
following letter prepared and sent to the United States Marshal : 

" ' Lawrence, May 14, 1856. 

" ' Dear Sir: We have seen a proclamation issued by yourself, 
dated nth May, instant, and also have reliable information this morn- 
ing that large bodies of armed men, in pursuance of your proclamation, 
have assembled in the vicinity of Lawrence. 

" ' That there may be no misunderstanding, we beg leave to ask re- 
spectfully (that we may be reliably informed) what are the demands 
against us? We desire to state most truthfully and earnestly that no 
opposition whatever will now, or at any future time, be offered to the 
execution of any legal process by yourself, or any person acting for 
you. We also pledge ourselves to assist you, if called upon, in the exe- 
cution of any legal process. 

" ' We declare ourselves to be order-loving and law-abiding citizens, 
and only await an opportunity to testify our fidelity to the laws of the 
country, the Constitution, and the Union. 



MEMORIAL. 247 

" ' We are informed, also, that those men collecting about Lawrence 
openly declare that their intention is to destroy the town and drive off 
the citizens. Of course we do not believe that you give any counte- 
nance to such threats ; but, in view of the excited state of the public 
mind, we ask protection of the constituted authorities of the Govern- 
ment, declaring ourselves in readiness to co-operate with them, for the 
maintenance of the peace, order, and quiet of the community in which 
we live. Very respectfully, 

" ' Robert Morrow, 
" ' Lyman Allex, 
" ' John Hutchinson. 
" ' /. B. Doiielson, United States Ma7-shal for Kansas Territory.'' 

" The following reply was received to this communication : 

" ' Office of the United States Marshal, 

Lecompton, K. T., May 15, 1856. 

" ' On yesterday I received a communication addressed to me, signed 
by one of you as president and the other as secretary, purporting to 
have been adopted by a meeting of the citizens of Lawrence, held on 
yesterday morning. After speaking of a proclamation issued by myself, 
you state "that there may be no misunderstanding, we beg leave to ask 
respectfully (that we may be reliably informed) what are the demands 
against us? We desire most truthfully and earnestly to declare, that no 
opposition whatever will now, or at any future time, be offered to the 
execution of any legal process by yourself, or any person acting for you. 
We also pledge ourselves to assist you, if called upon, in the execution 
of any legal process," etc. 

" ' From your professed ignorance of the demands against you I must 
conclude that you are strangers, and not citizens of Lawrence, or of re- 
cent date, or have been absent for some time ; more particularly when 
an attempt was made by my deputy to execute the process of the First 
District Court of the United States for Kansas Territory against ex- 
Governor Reeder, when he made a speech in the room and presence of 
the Congressional Committee, and denied the authority and power of 
said court, and threatened the life of said deputy if he attempted to exe- 
cute said process ; which speech and defiant threats were loudly ap- 
plauded by some one or two hundred of the citizens of Lawrence, who 
had assembled at the room on learning the business of the Marshal, and 
made such hostile demonstrations that the deputy thought he and his 
small posse would endanger their lives in executing said process. 

" ' Your declaration that you " will truthfully and earnestly offer no 
opposition now, nor at any future time, to the execution of any legal 
process," etc., is, indeed, difficult to understand. May I ask, gentle- 



248 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

men, what has produced this wonderful change in the minds of the 
people of Lawrence? Have their eyes been suddenly opened, so that 
they are now able to see that there are laws in force in Kansas Terri- 
tory which should be obeyed? Or is it that just now those for whom I 
have writs have sought refuge elsewhere? Or it may possibly be, that 
you now, as heretofore, expect to screen yourselves behind the word 
" legal," so significantly used by you. How am I to rely on your 
pledges, when I am well aware that the whole population of Lawrence 
is armed and drilled, and the town fortified — when I recollect the meet- 
ings and resolutions adopted in Lawrence, and elsewhere in the Terri- 
tory, openly defying the laws and officers thereof, and threatening to 
resist the same to a bloody issue, and recently verified in the attempted 
assassination of Sheriff Jones while in the discharge of his official 
duties in Lawrence? Are you strangers to all these things? Surely 
you must be strangers at Lawrence! If no outrages have been com- 
mitted by the citizens of Lawrence against the laws of the land, they 
need not fear any posse of mine. But I must take the liberty of execut- 
ing all processes in my hands, as the United States Marshal, in my own 
time and manner, and shall only use such power as is authorized by law. 
You say you call upon the constituted authority of the Government for 
protection. This, indeed, sounds strange coming from a large body of 
men armed with Sharp's rifles and other implements of war, bound to- 
gether by oaths and pledges to resist the laws of the Government they 
call on for protection. All persons in Kansas Territory, without regard 
to location, who honestly submit to the constituted authorities will ever 
find me ready to aid in protecting them ; and all who seek to resist the 
laws of the land and turn traitors to their country will find me aiding 
and enforcing the laws, if not as an officer, as a citizen. 
" ' Respectfully yours, 

'"I. B. DONELSON, 
" ' United States Marshal of Kansas Territory. 
' ' ' Messrs. Deitzler and J. II. Green, Lawrence, K. T. ' 

" We should consider this letter entirely unworthy of criticism were 
it not official. Its chief misstatements, however, must be corrected, 
and of these we shall notice the following : 

" I. That ex-Governor Reeder threatened the life of the Marshal, 
and was applauded therefor by the people of Lawrence ; the fact being 
that the words used by the former can only by forced construction be 
made to imply a threat against the person of the officer ; and that the 
Deputy Marshal had no personal fear of the citizens is proven by the 
fact that he frequently, during these difficulties, entered the town, and 
remained during his pleasure, without molestation or insult. 

" 2. His reiteration of the falsehoods that the whole population is 



MEMORIAL. 249 

armed and drilled, and the town fortified, while he possessed evidence 
through his deputies that such was not the case. That the so-called 
fortifications as there existing were not considered formidable for de- 
fense is proven by his subsequent neglect to demolish them while the 
town was in the hands of his posse. 

" 3. His wanton misapplication of certain resolutions passed at 
some other point in the Territory, and having no relation to the officers 
of the United States. 

"4. His effort to fasten the attempt on the life of Samuel J. 
Jones on the citizens of Lawrence, when it is a known fact that said 
citizens denounced that attempt in a most emphatic manner, and made 
all practicable effort to detect its author. 

" 5. The compound falsehood that the citizens of Lawrence are a 
large body of men armed with Sharp's rifles, bound together by oaths 
and pledges to resist the laws of the Government they call on for pro- 
tection, it being undoubtedly well known to himself that no such oaths 
or pledges exist, and that the citizens of Lawrence have never been com- 
bined to resist the laws of the United States. 

" From a reply thus disingenuous and partisan in character, the 
threatened town could derive no hope. Nevertheless, as the movements 
of the marauding forces grew daily more menacing in their character, 
the following letter was sent to the Marshal on the 17th instant: 

" ' Dear Sir: We desire to call your attention, as citizens of Kan- 
sas, to the fact that a large force of armed men have collected in the vi- 
cinity of Lawrence, and are engaged in committing depredations upon 
our citizens, stopping wagons, arresting, threatening, and robbing un- 
offending travellers upon the highway — breaking open boxes of mer- 
chandise and appropriating their contents — have slaughtered cattle, and 
terrified many of the women and children. 

" ' We have also learned from Governor Shannon that there are no 
armed forces in the vicinity of this place but the regularly constituted 
militia of the Territory. This is to ask you if you recognize them as 
your posse, and feel responsible for their acts. If you do not, we hope 
and trust you will prevent a repetition of such acts, and give peace to 
the settlers. On behalf of the citizens, 

" ' C. W. Babcock, 
" ' Lyman Allen, 
" ' J. A. Perry.' 

" To this letter no reply was vouchsafed. The same day a commu- 
nication was sent to the Governor by Messrs. S. W. and T. B. Eldridge, 
proprietors of the Eldridge House, asking for it protection against de- 
struction threatened by the mob in the Marshal's posse. The building 



250 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

itself was the property of the Emigrant Aid Company, but it had been 
furnished by the Messrs. Eldridge at heavy expense, and was not yet 
opened as a public house. A verbal reply was returned by the Gov- 
ernor to this appeal, expressing regret that the proprietors had taken 
possession, and giving some encouragement for protection. On the 
18th he was visited by the Messrs. Eldridge in person, and a full and 
truthful representation made of all the facts in the case. At this inter- 
view, the Governor, as well as the Marshal, seemed disposed to accord 
the protection needful. In addition to their own personal appeal, the 
Messrs. Eldridge presented a communication from the citizens of Law- 
rence, as follows : 

" ' Lawrence, K, T., May 17, 1856. 
" ' Gentlemen: Having learned that your reason for assembling so 
large a force in the vicinity of our town, to act as a posse in the enforce- 
ment of the laws, rests on the supposition that we are armed against 
the laws and the officers in the exercise of their duties, we would say, 
that we hold our arms only for our own individual defense against vio- 
lence, and not against the laws or officers in the execution of the same; 
therefore, having no further use for them when our protection is other- 
wise secured, we propose to deliver our arms to Colonel Sumner so 
soon as he shall quarter in our town a body of troops sufficient for our 
protection, to be retained by him as long as such force shall remain 
among us. Very truly, etc., 

" ' Many Citizens. 
" ^ His Excellency JVilson Shannon, Governor, and I. B. Donelson, 
Esq., United States Marshal for Kansas Tet-ritory.'' 

" Both the Governor and the Marshal expressed satisfaction with this 
proposition, and agreed to its terms in case a demand should be en- 
forced for the surrender of the arms. If no resistance was offered his 
force, the Marshal gave a positive promise of protection to the property 
of the citizens. But it was said that a portion of the posse was clam- 
orous for the destruction of the hotel and the printing offices ; and the 
Messrs. Eldridge were invited to return again on the following day, 
after time had been afforded for consultation with the captains of the 
companies. 

" It is worthy of remark, that all messengers to the Executive and 
Marshal were under guard during the whole time of their being within 
the lines of the besieging camp and on the road to Lecompton, and 
that the following pass was given to the Messrs. Eldridge on their de- 
parture this day : 

" ' Lecompton, May 18, 1856. 

" ' The bearers of this, S. W. and T. B. Eldridge, desire to return to 
Lawrence this evening and return in the morning. 



MEMORIAL. 



251 



" ' Now, therefore, all persons will permit these gentlemen to go and 
return without molestation or delay. 

" ' Wilson Shannon, 
" ' Governor of Kansas Territory. 
" '/. B. Donelson, United States Marshal, Kansas Territory.'' 

*' On the 19th Messrs. Eldridge renewed their visit according to 
agreement, but found a great change in the tone of the officials. It 
would appear that the companies composing the posse would be satis- 
fied with nothing short of some destruction of private property, and this 
feeling was so strong as to defy the power of the Marshal. The Messrs. 
Eldridge, on behalf of the citizens of Lawrence, offered the Marshal 
their services, and proposed, if he would supply them with weapons, to 
make all necessary pledges to sustain him in the protection of property 
and the execution of the laws. This offer the Marshal did not see fit 
to accept, alleging only the excuse of a deficiency of arms. It was evi- 
dent that a course of violence was resolved upon. One of the captains 
— a Colonel Titus, of Florida, a member of the late expedition against 
Cuba — declared boldly that the printing presses must be destroyed to 
satisfy the boys from South Carolina. But promises of protection to 
the hotel were renewed, and the Marshal pledged his word that^ if no 
resistance was made, he would enter the town with a small posse of 
unarmed men, and that the remainder should not be admitted. He also 
further promised not to dismiss them in the vicinity of the town. The 
incongruities of these various statements it is not for us to reconcile. 

" Feeling from all these circumstances the necessity to the town of 
efficient protection, the Messrs. Eldridge made a last effort to secure aid 
from the Governor. He disclaimed all authority over the force of the 
Marshal, and stated that he should not interfere with the officer's opera- 
tions. He was implored to summon to his aid the force of Colonel 
Sumner for the protection of the property of the citizens, but peremp- 
torily refused. It was represented to him that the Marshal's posse had 
resolved on perpetrating unlawful outrages in Lawrence, and he said 
the people of Lawrence must take such consequences as should ensue ; 
that he could protect them with the United States troops if he chose, 
but that he should not do so. When apprehensions were expressed to 
him that these outrages would finally madden the people to the point 
of resistance, and precipitate all the horrors of civil war, he turned an- 
grily away and left the room with the expression, ' War then it is, by 
God ! ' 

"These were the last words spoken to persons representing the 
people of Lawrence by the highest officer of the Territory. 

" During the following day the Deputy Marshal, W. P. Fain, a resi- 
dent of Calhoun, Georgia, visited the town, and in conversation with a 



252 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

citizen expressed the belief that the printing presses would be destroyed, 
but that the Eldridge House would be spared. 

" On the morning of the 21st instant a cavalry force was seen sta- 
tioned on a hill commanding the town. It was soon increased by a 
company of artillery and another of infantry. A white flag was first dis- 
played, which soon gave place to a red one. This emblem would have 
incited the citizens to resistance but for the known fact that the force 
was commanded by a United States officer (whose pledge of protection 
had been given) and armed with national weapons. Beside the red flag, 
whose motto was ' Southern rights,' soon floated that of the Union. 

" The Deputy Marshal entered the town with less than ten men, and 
proceeding to the Eldridge House, summoned both the proprietors to 
act on his posse, together with Dr. Garvey (Garvin?), John A. Perry, 
C. W. ToplifT, and Wm. Jones, all citizens of the town. This sum- 
mons was promptly obeyed, and all required assistance cheerfully given. 
Only two arrests were made during the morning, and with these, after 
dinner, the whole posse repaired to the camp. Colonel Topliff was 
charged with the delivery to the Marshal of the following communica- 
tion: 

" ' Lawrence, K. T., May 21, 1856. 
" ' We, the committee of public safety for the citizens of Lawrence, 
make this statement and declaration to you as Marshal of Kansas Ter- 
ritory : 

" 'That we represent citizens of the United States and of Kansas 
who acknowledge the constituted authorities of the Government ; that 
we make no resistance to the execution of the laws, national or terri- 
torial ; and that we ask protection of the Government, and claim it as 
law-abiding American citizens. 

" ' For the private property already taken by your posse we ask in- 
demnification, and what remains to us and our citizens we throw upon 
you for protection, trusting that under the flag of our Union and within 
the folds of the Constitution we may obtain safety. 

" ' Samuel C. Pomeroy, 
" ' W. Y. Roberts, 
" ' Lyman Allen, 
" ' John A. Perry, 
" ' C. W. Baecock, ■ 
" ' S. B. Prentiss, 
" ' A. H. Mallory, 
" 'Joel Grover. 
" ' /. B. Donclson, United States Marshal, Kansas Territory.'' 

" It was now hoped that the crisis had passed. On summoning on 
his posse the proprietors of the Eldridge House, Deputy Marshal Fain 



MEMORIAL. 253 

had renewed his promise to protect their property. The officials had 
been treated with every courtesy, and even generous hospitality. But 
by three o'clock the streets were filled by a company of armed horse- 
men, headed by Samuel J. Jones, Sheriff of Douglas County, who drew 
up his force in front of the Eldridge House and demanded of the citi- 
zens, in the name of the law, the surrender of their rifles and cannon. 
He gave five minutes for a reply. He was answered by General Pome- 
roy that the cannon, and all rifles not individual property (if any such there 
were), would be given up on his giving an official receipt for the same. 
General Pomeroy and General Roberts proceeded with him to assist in 
their delivery. This done, it was announced that the printing offices and 
the Eldridge House must be destroyed. Remonstrance was in vain. 

" In the meantime, the remainder of the force, comprising several 
hundred men, with United States muskets and fixed bayonets, were tak- 
ing position in the town. Men endeavored by argument, and women 
by tears, to alter the determination of Jones, but in vain. At 3:15 
o'clock he announced to Messrs. Eldridge that he would give them till 
five to remove their families and furniture from the house. The work 
of pillage had already commenced ; the contents of the printing offices 
were scattered in the streets, and the red flag planted on the roof, first 
of the office of the Herald of Freedom, and afterwards of the Eldridge 
House. The family of Mr. G. W. Brown were driven from their home, 
and the immediate pillage of the hotel prevented only by the resolute in- 
terference of a few citizens, aided by some individuals of the mob, who 
kept a strict guard at the doors, and insisted that the families of the pro- 
prietors should have the time promised by Jones in which to collect 
their most necessary effects and leave. At last the cannon were placed 
and ready, and it was announced to Colonel S. W. Eldridge that the 
bombardment would commence in five minutes. His wife and children, 
and such personal effects as they had been enabled to collect, were 
placed in carriages and driven off between files of United States bayo- 
nets, and amidst the yells of the impatient mob. As they left the town 
the first boom of a cannon told that the work of destruction had begun. 
Soon (as the impression made by the cannon was not great) the build- 
ing was fired, and with the aid of gunpowder reduced, with its furniture 
and stores, to a pile of ruins. 

" The work of pillage spread through the whole town, and continued 
until after dark. Every house and store which could be entered was 
ransacked, trunks broken open, and money and property taken at will. 
Where women had not fled, they were in some cases insulted, and even 
robbed of their clothing. From one house over two thousand dollars 
in money were carried away. The house of Charles Robinson was pil- 
laged and burned to the ground. The same evening, forces were drawn 
off to their camp, and the sack of Lawrence was concluded. 



2 54 THE KANSAS CONFLICT, 

" Some incidents of this authorized outrage here demand mention. 
While Messrs. Topliff and Perry were aiding the Marshal in making 
the arrests, both their houses were broken open and pillaged. Some of 
the flags which floated beside that of the Union had for mottoes, ' Su- 
periority of the white race,' ' Kansas the outpost,' ' South Carolina'; 
while one had the national stripes, with a tiger in place of the Union; 
another had alternate stripes of black and white. While the cannon 
were being placed for the destruction of the Eldridge House, David R. 
Atchison, late Vice-President of the United States, was conspicuous 
among the mob. When the final doom of the hotel and printing offices 
was pronounced, it was said by the officials to be by order of the Gov- 
ernment, as the Grand Jury of Douglas County had ordered them abated 
as nuisances. The only charge against the Eldridge House was its 
ownership by the Emigrant Aid Company. 

" To evade the pledge given by the Marshal that he would not allow 
his posse to enter Lawrence, they were disbanded by him, after the ar- 
rests were made, and enrolled as a sheriff's posse by Samuel J. Jones ; 
the Marshal thus keeping one pledge at the expense of another. On 
the next day they were again enrolled as the posse of the Marshal. 

' ' There are also some facts of another character which we wish to 
record. We believe that many of the captains of the invading com- 
panies exerted themselves to the utmost for the protection of life and 
property. Some of them protested against these enormous outrages, 
and endeavored to dissuade Samuel J. Jones from their perpetration. 
Many used personal effort to remove such property as was possible from 
the Eldridge House before its destruction. Among these stood promi- 
nently Colonel Zadock Jackson, of Georgia, who did not scruple either 
in Lawrence or his own camp to denounce the outrages in terms such 
as they deserved. Colonel Buford, of Alabama, also disclaimed having 
come to Kansas to destroy property, and condemned the course which 
had been taken. The prosecuting attorney of Douglas County, the 
legal adviser of the Sheriff, used his influence in vain to prevent the de- 
struction of property. 

" We have thus given an outline of the events which have concluded 
an unparalleled chapter in the history of our country. That we have 
dealt mildly with the facts, and fallen short of the real atrocity of the 
case, will be proven by the testimony which, in time, public opinion 
will not fail to gather. So gigantic is that official villainy of which we 
are being made the victims that the understanding almost refuses to 
believe the evidence, however strong. That any set of men in a repre- 
sentative Government like ours can be so reckless, and so defiant of 
right, as to attempt the administration of law on principles of perjury 
and brigandage is a combination of fatuity and corruption almost pass- 
ing belief. Yet the facts spring out with startling boldness on the pict- 



MEMORIAL. 255 

ure of events, and we see the spectacle of rulers utterly ignoring the 
oaths they have taken, and perverting the beneficent power of govern- 
ment to the base uses of a ruthless despotism — at will despoiling men 
of their property and lives — endeavoring to bind fast the hands of the 
loyal citizens who look to them for protection, and to deliver them over 
as bondmen to an invading force. We cannot but feel that you will be 
slow to believe facts such as we have stated here, and for the credit of 
humanity we cannot otherwise hope ; yet we cherish the trust that you 
will heed the voice, however feeble, that pours its complaint into your 
ear, and exert the influence of your office to prevent the possible occur- 
rence of abuses of power on the parts of those officials who are directly 
responsible to you for the faithful discharge of their duties ; and to insti- 
tute such a scrutiny into their past conduct as will reveal its true charac- 
ter and inspire a salutary caution in future. In making such a scrutiny 
it seems to us inevitable that the communications of the territorial of- 
ficers of Kansas, as given in this memorial, coupled with the undisputed 
facts resulting from their action, will show at least a criminal disregard 
of good faith sufficient of itself to prove their unfitness for the responsi- 
bilities they have assumed. And in the meantime we have been driven 
to the appointment of a committee of protection, whose duty it will be 
to organize and use all means for the defense of our liberties and prop- 
erty, during such time as we are unable to procure protection from the 
Government under which we live. 

" As regards the pecuniary damage sustained by this community at 
the hand of the Government as administered by these officials, we can- 
not doubt but you will see the justice of our claim, and employ the in- 
fluence of your position to procure for us an adequate compensation. 
The readiest way to do this would seem to be by an appropriation by 
Congress, which it is within your province to recommend. It is at 
present impossible to estimate this damage, as new depredations are 
continually being made. How long these will be permitted to continue 
will depend to a great extent upon the pleasure of our rulers. But it is 
certain that the amount is, even at present, for a community like ours 
very great. The loss to the proprietor of the Eldridge House alone is 
to nearly the full extent of their investments, time being denied them to 
remove any material portion of the costly furniture and abundant stores 
provided for its use. The destruction of the printing offices, like that 
of the hotel, involves not only the cost of the property, but the complete 
ruin of the business in which it was employed. And then there is 
scarcely a freeholder in Lawrence, or for many miles around, but has 
had costly experience of that depredatory action which the Marshal in 
his proclamation has called ' the proper execution of the law.' 

' ' Were the destruction of property, however, the gravest result of 
this mal-administration, it would be shorn of its chief importance. But 



256 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

it must not be forgotten that among ts consequences has been loss of 
life, and it is due to the community that justice be administered upon 
those who caused it. And surely when we say to your Excellency that 
our country is still being overrun, and that this very day has brought to 
our ears the fresh complaints of property taken, and women ravished in 
their homes, it will not be considered either disrespectful or ill-timed in 
us to urge, with all the earnestness of men who know the truth of the 
things whereof they speak, that the facts herein set forth, and the peti- 
tions preferred, receive the earliest attention in the power of your Excel- 
lency to bestow, 

" O. E. Learnard, 
" S. W. Eldridge, 
" C. W. Babcock, 

" J. M. WiNCHELL, 

" Lyman Allen, 
" S. B. Prentiss, 
"L. G. Hine, 
" Joseph Cracklin, 
" John Perry. 
" Lawrence, K. T., May 22, 1856." 

Here is an arraignment of the Government more terrible 
than an " army with banners." The indictment of the 
Slave-State party had been made on paper and sent broad- 
cast over the land — the invasions at elections, the despotic 
code enacted, the Wakarusa war and general lawlessness — 
but here is the conviction of official crime before the Ameri- 
can people as a jury, and the verdict was unanimous. The 
Wakarusa war was a great victory, but this was much 
greater ; as the first simply resulted in compelling nearly two 
thousand men to march to Kansas and then march back again, 
accomplishing nothing, not even serving a peace warrant 
issued by a bogus justice of the peace, while this demon- 
strated the nature of the Government imposed upon Ameri- 
can citizens in Kansas. Here were the law-abiding citizens, 
having committed no crime, ready to act as a posse to ferret 
out and arrest criminals, if any there were, almost on their 
knees as suppliants for protection from outrage by an 
official mob, without avail. The picture cannot be dupli- 
cated in the most despotic government on earth. Did the 



POLICY ADOPTED. 257 

people do right in permitting this official infamy without 
resistance "? F. B. Sanborn says no. His two heroes, Brown 
and Lane, might have said no, had they been present and 
not timid, judging them by their designs at the Wakarusa 
war. But when it is remembered that this struggle was 
national and not local merely, that the Federal authority was 
desirous of abetting the Slave-State party, and of crushing 
out the Free-State men, that this Government had to be 
held up before the country in its true light, the answer must 
be in the affirmative. Had this mob been unofficial, could 
it have been attacked without attacking Federal authority, 
as was the case at Osawatomie, Franklin, Fort Saunders, 
and Titus, it would have been utterly wiped out by the men 
who were at Lawrence, who much preferred to fight rather 
than submit passively to insults from this official mob; In 
the estimation of the world, these men showed more true 
courage and heroism than even when Titus' fort was after- 
wards taken within sight of the Federal army. Suppose, for 
a moment, Sanborn's policy had been adopted — this hero 
who, although an accomplice with Brown in Harper's Ferry 
raid, was at a safe distance from harm in Massachusetts 
when the fight came off, and at a safer distance in Canada 
when the accomplices were being picked up — suppose an 
excuse had been given by armed resistance to enter Law- 
rence, the Administration would have been vindicated in its 
assumptions that the Free-State men were rebels to Federal 
authority. And even the burning and pillage of the entire 
town would have been regarded as the merited punishment 
of a nest of traitors. That success, if possible for the 
moment, would have lasted only till Colonel Sumner could 
have reached Lawrence with his soldiers, all men of ordinary 
intelligence must know. In such a case, instead of the 
approbation and sympathy of all good people everywhere, 
the Free-State men and cause would have been abandoned 
by all its friends at home and abroad, and from that moment, 
hanging of traitors — real traitors — and the expulsion of all 
11 



258 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

remnants of anti-slavery would have been the congenial 
work of the Atchisons, Stringfellows, and their allies of the 
Slave-State party. Besides, in no other way could the 
infamy of the territorial usurpation be so conclusively dem- 
onstrated as by the official destruction of printing presses 
and hotels as nuisances, without trial or hearing of any kind. 
As in the Wakarusa war, so in this case, the pro-slavery 
men were divided in counsel. Some were conservative and 
some ultra. Governor Shannon and the President were 
opposed to the Marshal's employment of civilians, but the 
Marshal was controlled by the fire-eaters. Governor Reeder, 
in hiding at Kansas City during this invasion, in his diary 
under date of May 15 th, six days before the serving of the 
writs, refers to this division of sentiment as follows : 

" He [Colonel Coates] says, also, that Donelson, the Marshal, has is- 
sued a proclamation calling for a force, and reciting generally that he 
has writs against sundry citizens of Lawrence. He says also, on the 
authority of Colonel Sumner, that Shannon had become alarmed, but 
was powerless, and no better than a prisoner in the hands of those around 
him ; that he had essayed to take into his own hands the collection of a 
posse, but the Marshal would not allow it; that he had insisted that 
Donelson should not accept the service of any Missourians, to which a 
reluctant assent was given, but that this was a mere evasion, and that 
there were camps of Missourians now in the Territory who called them- 
selves Georgians, as was learned from a man by the name of Wise, who 
was in the camp. There have come to the Territory this spring some 
three or four hundred young men, including Buford's party, who evi- 
dently came here to fight, and whose leaders probably understood the 
whole programme before they left home. 

" Under cover of these men and assuming their name and character, 
the citizens of Missouri will doubtless come over. Mr. Coates also 
says, on authority of Colonel Sumner, that Shannon has actually fled 
the country, under pretense of business, to avoid the storm which he 
cannot control and dare not face. Also, that our friends at Lawrence 
sent a messenger (Captain Walker) to Shannon, with a letter request- 
ing him to order out the troops for the defense of the town ; that Walker 
had difficulty to get into town, and was compelled to conceal himself, 
and send in another person ; that he was recognized and fired at, but 
not hit. Shannon's reply was written while surrounded by the ultra 
men about him, and was evasive and unsatisfactory. Also, that the at- 



THE president's POSITION, 259 

tack was fixed for to-morrow evening. This is most alarming news, 
and I tremble for our people." 

Governor Shannon, in his letter to the President, under 
date of June 17th, said : " I have already stated my opinion 
as to the utter impossibility of preserving order or prevent- 
ing civil war by means of the militia of the Territory. Their 
use would lead to a contrary result." 

The position and solicitude of the President may be seen 
by reference to his dispatches to Governor Shannon as fol- 
lows : 

" Executive Office, May 23, 1856. 

" Has the United States Marshal proceeded to Lawrence to execute 
civil process? Has military force been found necessary to maintain civil 
government in Kansas? If so, have you relied solely upon troops under 
the command of Colonels Sumner and Cooke? If otherwise, state the 
reasons. The laws must be executed ; but military force should not be 
employed until after the Marshal has met with actual resistance in the 
fulfillment of his duty. 

" Franklin Pierce. 
" IVilson Shannon, Governor of Kansas, Lecompton, Kansas Terri- 
tory ^ 

" Executive Office, May 23, 1856. 

" Since my telegraph of this morning was sent, the Secretary of War 
has laid before me Colonel Sumner's letter to you of the 12th instant. 
His suggestion strikes me as wise and prudent. I hope that before this 
reaches you decisive measures will have been taken to have the process 
in the hands of the Marshal quietly executed. My knowledge of facts 
is imperfect ; but with the force of Colonel Sumner at hand, I perceive 
no occasion for the posse, armed or unarmed, which the Marshal is said 
to have assembled at Lecompton. The instructions issued to yourself 
and Colonel Sumner during your last visit to this city must be efficiently 
executed. Suflicient power was committed to you, and you must use it. 

" Obedience to the laws and consequent security to the citizens of 
Kansas are the primary objects. 

" You must repress lawless violence in whatever form it may mani- 

^^'' '''^^^- " Franklin Pierce." 

" Executive Office, June 6, 1856. 
" Were my dispatches of May 23d received by yourself or Colonel 
Sumner? If they were, why have they not been acknowledged? Con- 
fused and contradictory accounts continue to reach me of scenes of dis- 



26o THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

order and violence in Kansas. If the civil authorities, sustained by the 
military force under the command of Colonels Sumner and Cooke placed 
at your disposal, are not sufficient to maintain order and afford protec- 
tion to peaceable and law-abiding citizens, you should have advised me at 
once. I hardly need repeat the instructions so often given. Maintain 
the laws firmly and impartially, and take care that no good citizen has 
just ground to complain of the want of protection. 

" Franklin Pierce. 
"Hon. Wilson Shannon (care of Colonel Sumner), Fort Leavenworth, 
Kansas Territory." 

Governor Shannon, in his letter to the President, May 
31st, says: "Had the Marshal called on me for a posse, I 
should have felt myself bound to furnish him with one com- 
posed entirely of United States troops. Knowing this to be 
the case, and feehng satisfied that, with a posse composed of 
such troops, the parties to be arrested would evade the 
service of process, he determined, by virtue of the legal 
powers vested in him as Marshal, to summon his own posse 
from the citizens of the Territory." 

It will be seen that Governor Shannon has more than 
once unwittingly conceded that the Free-State policy was more 
than a match for the Government. As before quoted, in his 
letter to Secretary of State Marcy, dated April 27, 1856, he 
says: "It will be obvious to the President that, if every 
officer of the Government charged with the execution of 
legal process, issued under, and to enforce the territorial 
laws, is compelled to call on a military posse of United 
States troops to aid in executing the law, the territorial 
government will be practically nullified." 

Take this in connection with this statement to the Presi- 
dent on June 17, 1856: "I have already stated my opinion 
as to the utter impossibility of preserving order or prevent- 
ing civil war by means of the militia of the Territory. Their 
use would lead to a contrary result." And this from his 
letter to the President dated December 11, 1855, immedi- 
ately after the Wakarusa war: "The militia or volunteer 
corps cannot be relied on to preserve the peace in these civil 



SUCCESS OF FREE-STATE POLICY. 26 1 

party contests, or where partisans are concerned. A call on 
the militia will generally bring in conflict the two parties. 
I am satisfied that the only forces that can be used in this 
Territory in enforcing the laws, or preserving the peace, are 
those of the United States " ; and yet, should this course be 
adopted, according to his letter of April 27, 1856, " the terri- 
torial Government will be practically nullified." 

Now, the Free-State men had been able to study this all 
out in advance, and before they sent for the first installment 
of Sharp's rifles. Several of them had been through the 
same process in California, and knew what "thwarting, 
baffling, and circumventing " could accomplish. But it took 
the Administration more than a year, till September, 1856, 
to learn by bitter experience what the Free-State men stud- 
ied out soon after the 30th of March, 1855. 

About the time that Robinson started East, steps were 
taken to arrest Governor Reeder, who was in attendance 
upon the Congressional Committee. He plead his privilege 
from arrest as Member of Congress, but it was ineffectual. 
He then refused to be arrested, and told the Deputy Mar- 
shal that if he attempted it, he would do so at his peril. 
But Governor Reeder's friends, seeing that his presence 
would precipitate a conflict with Federal authority, or result 
in his being held a prisoner, advised that he should visit the 
States and Washington. He reached Kansas City, where 
he remained concealed for about two weeks, when he es- 
caped, and arrived in Ilhnois. 

Mrs. Robinson, after the arrest at Lexington, was per- 
mitted to go on her journey. She met Governor Chase, of 
Columbus ; Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston ; H. B. Claflin, 
of New York, and such men as Lovejoy, Arnold, Browning, 
Medill, Ray, Lincoln, and Brown, of Illinois. To these 
people she explained the situation in Kansas. Mr. Law- 
rence at once set about procuring petitions, for caUing to- 
gether Northern Legislatures, and drew up a remonstrance 
to the President, to be signed by Northern governors. Mrs. 



262 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

R. attended the State convention at Bloomington, Illinois, 
at which Governor Reeder appeared, fresh from his conceal- 
ment at Kansas City. J. S. Emery was also at this conven- 
tion. The appearance of Reeder created the wildest enthu- 
siasm. In a word, the invasion of Lawrence on the 21st 
of May by Federal authority, with the official destruction 
of the best hotel west of St. Louis and two printing offices, 
fired the whole North. It did more to arouse the people 
than Robinson, had he been permitted to go on his mission, 
could have done in a year. It was seized upon by the Re- 
publican party as its special campaign thunder, and it rever- 
berated all along the political skies from Maine to Cahfornia. 
A convention was held at Buffalo, which organized a 
National ReUef Committee, with headquarters at Chicago, 
and Thaddeus Hyatt, of New York, was made President. 
This convention appointed Eli Thayer a committee of one 
to organize the entire North in the interest of free Kansas. 
Also, other large organizations, besides the National, were 
effected, among them the Massachusetts, of which George 
L. Stearns was chairman, and F. B. Sanborn became secre- 
tary. Many of the Kansas settlers took the field in the 
States, among others Lane, Emery, Conway, Schuyler, Hol- 
liday, Roberts, Smith, Wood, and others. Thus the Slave- 
State party did immeasurably more for their opponents than 
their opponents could have done for themselves. Men and 
money from this time were raised with the greatest ease for 
the purpose of rebuking this tyranny, and making sure a 
free State in Kansas. Even the Slave-State men were far 
from jubilant over their conduct. The memorial to the 
President, as above quoted, makes this honorable mention : 

" There are also some facts of another character which we wish to 
record. We believe that many of the captains of the invading com- 
panies exerted themselves to the utmost for the protection of life and 
property. Some of them protested against these enormous outrages, 
and endeavored to dissuade Samuel J. Jones from their perpetration. 
Many used personal effort to remove such property as was possible from 
the Eldridge House before its destruction. Among these stood promi- 



SLAVE-STATE MEN DIVIDED. 263 

nently Colonel Zadock Jackson, of Georgia, who did not scruple, either 
in Lawrence or his own camp, to denounce the outrages in terms such 
as they deserved. Colonel Buford, of Alabama, also disclaimed having 
come to Kansas to destroy property, and condemned the course which 
had been taken. The prosecuting attorney of Douglas County, the legal 
advisor of the Sheriff, used his influence in vain to prevent the destruc- 
tion of property." 

Thus, not only was their pretended victory a most disas- 
trous defeat before the country, but it served to ahenate many 
of their aUies, men who were supposed to be unscrupulous in 
the work of establishing slavery in Kansas. 

It was under such circumstances that the Marshal's posse, 
after the execution of pretended writs by the destruction of 
innocent property departed, singly or in squads, to their 
homes in Missouri. So far, the record of the Free-State 
men was without a blot or blemish of any kind, and was 
universally applauded. Up to this point no Federal ofificial 
had been resisted or threatened, and no crime had been 
committed. Their friends on the stump, in the press, or else- 
where, had no mistakes to explain, and no apologies to 
make. Even the pro-slavery party, including the Admin- 
istration, could point to no crimes except the crime of enter- 
taining opinions and expressing them. The battle, to all 
appearances, was fought to the finish, and won by the Free- 
State party. Governor Shannon was satisfied, in the fall 
before, that no militia could ever be used in Kansas, and he 
never would use it. Also, he had admitted that the policy 
of the Free-State men, of compeUing the use of the army to 
enforce peace warrants, "practically nullified" the territorial 
Government ; and now the Marshal had had an experience 
he would not forget, or, if he should forget it, the President 
would most siu-ely remind him of it. What more could 
be done by the Slave State men? Nothing whatever that 
could seriously annoy their antagonists. They could not 
enter upon a course of lawlessness, for the Administration 
was responsible for the peace of the Territory, and could 



264 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

not afford to have its own adherents bring discredit upon 
the Government. Fortunately for the Slave-State party, 
there was one man among the Free-State men as sorely dis- 
appointed at the result as they were. This was John Brown. 
He had come to Kansas " not to settle " or " speculate " — or 
from idle curiosity ; but for one stern, solitary purpose — to 
have a shot at the South." (Redpath, in " Roving Editor.") 
But that " shot at the South " was not the making of a free 
State in Kansas, according to the plan of the Free-State 
party, but the engaging the country in a civil war. This is 
abundantly shown by his biographer, James Redpath, 
When he arrived at Lawrence, near the close of the Waka- 
rusa war, he was given the command of a company, and 
Redpath, on page 86 of his " Life of Captain John Brown," 
quotes an eye-witness as saying : " From that moment he 
commenced fomenting difficulties in camp, disregarding the 
command of superior officers, and trying to induce the men 
to go down to Franklin, and make an attack upon the pro- 
slavery forces encamped there. The Committee of Public 
Safety were called upon several times to head off his wild 
adventure, as the people of Lawrence had planted them- 
selves on the law, claiming that they had not been guilty 
of its infraction, and that no armed body of men should 
enter the town for any purpose whatever, and that they 
would not go out of town to attack any such body. Peace 
was established, and Old Brown retired in disgust." 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE POTAWATOMIE MASSACRE AND ITS EFFECTS. — A GUER- 
RILLA WAR. DISPERSION OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 

ARRIVAL OF LANE AND BROWN. 

This decisive victory over the Slave-State party was 
achieved May 21, 1856, and to all appearance it was final, 
as neither the Governor's militia nor Marshal's posse would 
ever be called upon again, and the United States soldiers 
were perfectly harmless in their attempts to foist upon the 
people the territorial usurpation. Nothing remained but to 
fill up the Territory with bona fide settlers, and to take pos- 
session of the Government at the election of the Legislature, 
when the day should arrive. 

But now came a new conflict, inaugurated by John Brown. 
As his friends and foes alike have conceded that the tes- 
timony of James Townsley is trustworthy, extracts from it 
are here given, in order to show the nature of the war to 
be waged henceforth. This testimony was taken by John 
Hutchings, an able lawyer of Lawrence, and some of it is as 
follows : 

" I joined the Potawatomie rifle company at its re-organization in 
May, 1S56, at which time John Brown, Jr., was elected captain. On 
the 2 1st of the same month information was received that the Georgians 
were marching on Lawrence, threatening its destruction. The com- 
pany was immediately called together, and about four o'clock P.M. we 
started on a forced march to aid in its defense. About two miles 
south of Middle Creek we were joined by the Osawatomie company 
under Captain Dayton, and proceeded to Mount Vernon, where we 
waited about two hours, until the moon rose. We then marched 
all night, camping the next morning, the 22d, for breakfast, near Ot- 
tawa Jones's. Before we arrived at this point news had been received 



266 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

that Lawrence had been destroyed, and a question was raised whether 
we should return or go on. During the forenoon, however, we pro- 
ceeded up Ottawa Creek to within about five miles of Palmyra, and 
went into camp near the residence of Captain Shore. Here we re- 
mained undecided over night. About noon the next day, the 23d, Old 
John Brown came to me and said he had just received information that 
trouble was expected on the Potawatomie, and wanted to know if I 
would take my team and take him and his boys back, so they could keep 
watch of what was going on. 1 told him I would do so. The party, 
consisting of Old John Brown, Watson Brown, Oliver Brown, Henry 
Thompson (John Brown's son-in-law), and Mr. Winer, were soon ready 
for the trip, and we started, as near as I can rememreber, about two 
o'clock P.M. All of the party except Winer, who rode a pony, rode 
with me in my wagon. When within two or three miles of the Pota- 
watomie Creek, we turned off the main road to the right, drove down 
to the edge of the timber between two deep ravines, and camped about 
one mile above Dutch Henry's crossing. 

" After my team was fed and the party had taken supper, John Brown 
told me for the first time what he proposed to do. He said he wanted 
me to pilot the company up to the forks of the creek, some five or six 
miles above, into the neighborhood where I lived, and show them where 
all the pro-slavery men resided ; that he proposed to sweep the creek as 
he came down of all the pro-slavery men living on it. I positively re- 
fused to do it. He insisted upon it, but when he found that I would 
not go, he decided to postpone the expedition until the following night. 
I then wanted to take my team and go home, but he would not let me 
do so, and said I should remain with them. We remained in camp that 
night and all the next day. Some time after dark we were ordered to 
march. 

" W^e started, the whole company, in a northerly direction, crossing 
Mosquito Creek above the residence of the Doyles. Soon after cross- 
ing the creek some one of the party knocked at the door of a cabin, but 
received no reply — I have forgotten whose cabin it was, if I knew at 
the time. The next place we came to was the residence of the Doyles. 
John Brown, three of his sons, and son-in-law went to the door, leaving 
Frederick Brown, Winer, and myself a short distance from the house. 
About this time a large dog attacked us. Frederick Brown struck the 
dog a blow with his short two-edged sword, after which I dealt him a 
blow with my sabre, and heard no more of him. The old man Doyle 
and two sons were called out and marched some distance from the house 
towards Dutch Henry's, in the road, where a halt was made. Old John 
Brown drew his revolver and shot the old man Doyle in the forehead, 
and Brown's two youngest sons immediately fell upon the younger 
Doyles with their short two-edged swords. 



TOWNSLEY'S STATEMENT. 267 

' ' One of the young Doyles was stricken down in an instant, but the 
other attempted to escape, and was pursued a short distance by his as- 
sailant and cut down. The company then proceeded down Mosquito 
Creek to the house of Allen Wilkinson. Here tAe old man Brown, 
three of his sons, and son-in-law, as at the Doyle residence, went to the 
door and ordered Wilkinson to come out, leaving Frederick Brown, 
Winer, and myself standing in the road east of the house. Wilkinson 
was taken and marched some distance south of his house and slain in 
the road, with a short sword, by one of the younger Browns. After 
he was killed his body was dragged out to one side and left. 

' ' We then crossed the Potawatomie and came to the house of Henry 
Sherman, generally known as Dutch Henry. Here John Brown and 
the party, excepting Frederick Brown, Winer, and myself, who were 
left outside a short distance from the door, went into the house and 
brought out one or two persons, talked with them some, and then took 
them in again. They afterwards brought out William Sherman, Dutch 
Henry's brother, marched him down into the Potawatomie Creek, where 
he was slain with swords by Brown's two youngest sons, and left lying 
in the creek. 

" It was the expressed intention of Brown to execute Dutch Henry 
also, but he was not found at home. He also hoped to find George 
Wilson, Probate Judge of Anderson County, there, and intended, if he 
did, to kill him too. Wilson had been notifying Free-State men to 
leave the Territory. I had received such a notice from him myself. 

" Brown wanted me to pilot the party into the neighborhood where 
I lived, and point out all the pro-slavery men in it, whom he proposed 
to put to death. I positively refused to do it, and on account of my re- 
fusal I remained in camp all of the night upon which the first attack 
was to be made, and the next day. I told him I was willing to go with 
him to Lecompton and attack the leaders, or fight the enemy in open 
field anywhere, but I did not want to engage in killing these men. 
That night and the acts then perpetrated are vividly fixed in my memory, 
and I have thought of them many times since. 

" I make this statement at the urgent request of my friends and 
neighbors. Judge James Hanway and Hon. Johnson Clarke, who have 
been present during all the time occupied in writing it out, and in whose 
hearing it has been several times read before signing. 

"James Towxslet. 

" Lane, Kan., December 6, 1879." 

This massacre occurred on the 24th of May, 1S56. On 
the 2Sth this mode of warfare was continued by the robbery 



268 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

of Morton Bourn of his money, guns, horses, saddles, and 
store. Mr. Bourn testified, as found in the report of the 
Congressional Committee, on page io8, as follows: 

" I own slaves, and have a crop of corn and wheat growing. Have 
never taken any active part with the pro-slavery party, only voted the 
pro-slavery ticket, and was for sustaining the laws. * * * These 
men said I must leave in a day or two, or they would kill me, or hinted 
as much — said I would not fare well, or words to that effect. I left for 
fear of my life and the lives of my family. They said that the war was 
commenced, that they were going to fight it out, and drive the pro-slav- 
ery people out of the Territory, or words to that amount. The men 
that robbed my house and drove me away from my property were abo- 
litionists, or free-soilers. * * * I believe they hated me so because 
I am a pro-slavery man, and in favor of the territorial laws, and be- 
cause I served on the last Grand Jury at Lecompton." 

The Store of J. M. Bernard was robbed on the 27th of 
May. Of this robbery, John Miller testifies : 

" I was in the store with Mr. Davis. Whilst there a party of thir- 
teen men came to the store on horseback, armed with Sharp's rifles, re- 
volvers, and bowie-knives. They inquired for . Mr. Bernard. I told 
them that he had gone to Westport. One of them said to me, ' You are 
telling a God damned lie,' and drew up his gun at me. Some of them 
came into the store, and the rest remained outside. They called for such 
goods as they wanted, and made Mr. Davis and myself hand them out, 
and said if we ' didn't hurry ' they would shoot us. They had their guns 
ready. After they had got the goods — they wanted principally blankets 
and clothing — they packed them upon their horses and went away. 
Mr. Joab Bernard is a pro-slavery man. [Mr. Miller recognized one of 
the party as an active Free-State man.] They on the next day came back 
with a wagon, and took the remainder of the goods in the store, except 
about one hundred and fifty dollars' worth — including flour, sugar, cof- 
fee, bacon, and all kinds of provisions, as well as two fine horses, three 
saddles, two bridles, and all the money there was in the store." 

In the conclusion of his affidavit, Mr. Miller says : 

" When they first came, they looked up at the sign, and said they 
would like to shoot at the name." 

James Redpath, in his " Life of Captain John Brown," 
page 1 01, says that Charley Lenhart and John E. Cook, 



redpath's justification. 269 

after the 21st of May, left Lawrence, "to commence re- 
prisals." Also, he says on page 117 : 

" On the 23d of May, John Brown left the camp of his son, at Osa- 
watomie, with seven or eight men, and from that moment began his 
guerrilla warfare in southern Kansas." 

The same author fully justifies this midnight assassination 
and robbery, and from that time this kind of warfare con- 
tinued in full force till the 14th of September. 

Andreas, in his history, page 131, says : 

" The aggressive warfare thus begun was not in accordance with 
the plans or purposes of the leaders of the Free-State movement ; on 
the contrary, it was in direct opposition to their counsel, and had been 
persistently decried and successfully restrained up to this time. For 
the disorders that ensued, the Free-State organization was in no man- 
ner responsible." 

Two attempts at justification are made for this mode of 
warfare : 

First, it was a means of self-defense against like out- 
rages. 

Second, it quieted the disturbances in the Territory. The 
first and principal witness for the defense theory is James 
Redpath. Up to this time he and the other newspaper 
correspondents were loyal to the policy of the Free-State 
party, but now they, some of them, defended its enemies. 
Redpath, in his " Life of Captain John Brown," begin- 
ning at page 115, gives this account and defense of this 
tragedy : 

" I have spoken of the rumors of midnight murder in the Potawat- 
omie region, and stated that Captain Brown was accused by the invaders 
of having done the deed. The charge is false. It was first made by 
his enenies, who feared him, and desired to drive him out of the dis- 
trict, and subsequently repeated by a recreant Free-State journalist, 
who sold himself to the Federal Administration for the paltry bribe of 
the public printing. 

" The killing of the ruffians of Potawatomie was one of those stern 
acts of summary justice with which the history of the West and of 



270 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



every civil war abounds. Lynch law is one of the early necessities of 
far-western communities ; and the terrors of it form the only efficient 
guarantee of the peaceful citizen from the ruffianism which distinguishes 
and curses every new Territory. The true story of Potawatomie is 
briefly told. 

" In all that region, ever since the opening of the Territory for set- 
tlement, the pro-slavery party had been brutally tyrannical, Free-State 
men were daily robbed, beaten, and killed ; their property was stolen, 
openly, before their eyes ; and yet they did not dare to resist the out- 
rages. One or two families alone were occasionally exempted, by their 
character for desperate courage, from these daring and unwarrantable 
assaults. Among them were the sons and son-in-law of Old John 
Brown ; and even they had repeatedly suffered from the conduct of the 
ruffians, until the arrival of their father in the autumn, with arms. 
Then, until the months of April and May, a season of peace was allowed 
them. But when, in fulfilment of the plan of the Missouri secret lodges, 
the Territory was to be conquered for slavery, it at once became a ques- 
tion of life, death, or immediate banishment to the settlers in southern 
Kansas how they should act against the invading pro-slavery party and 
their allies among the squatters. Men who have passed their lives in 
the quiet of New England's valleys, or in Eastern cities, can never 
know what it is to be in earnest on what is seemingly a mere question 
of political right or constitutional interpretation. Hence this chapter 
may shock them ; but it is my duty, nevertheless, to write it. 

' ' The pro-slavery party, in all the region around Potawatomie, re- 
newed their system of aggressions on the Free-State men. John Brown 
began to stir himself and prepare for the defense of his neighborhood. 
With his two sons or friends he went out into the prairies where a num- 
ber of invaders were encamped, and, pretending to survey the country, 
drove his imaginary lines through the middle of their camp. All the 
Government officers in Kansas, from the Governor down to the humblest 
workmen, were at this time, and for long afterwards, ultra pro-slavery 
men ; many of them professed secessionists, who publicly cursed the 
Union as a burden to the South. John Brown frequently adopted this 
plan of entering the camp of the invading forces, and not only never 
was suspected, but was never asked what his political opinions were. 
Never doubting that he was a Government surveyor, the Southrons 
never doubted his political orthodoxy. 

" The men in this camp freely told him their plans. There was an 
old man of the name Brown, they said, who had several sons here whom 
it was necessary to get out of the way, as, if they were driven out or 
killed, the other settlers would be afraid to oflfer any further resistance. 
They told him how Wilkinson, the Doyles, and a Dutchman named 
Sherman, had recently been in Missouri, and succeeded in securing 



redpath's statement. 271 

forces to drive out the Browns, and that it was determined to kill them 
in the latter part of May. They mentioned several other prominent 
Free-State men who were to share this fate. 

" John Brown left their camp, and at once notified the settlers who 
had been marked out for destruction, of the murderous designs of the 
Missourians. A meeting of the intended victims was held ; and it was 
determined that on the first indication of the massacre, the Doyles — a 
father and two sons — Wilkinson, and Sherman should be seized, tried 
by Lynch law, and summarily killed. 

" On the 23d of May, John Brown left the camp of his son, at Osa- 
watomie, with seven or eight men, and from that moment began his 
guerrilla warfare in southern Kansas. He ordered them to the vicinity 
of his home, to be ready for the Missourians when they came. He 
himself went in a different direction, for the purpose of obtaining fur- 
ther aid. 

' ' On the night of the 25th of May, the Doyles, Wilkinson, and 
Sherman were seized, tried, and slain. This act was precipitated by a 
brutal assault committed during the forenoon on a Free-State man at the 
store of Sherman, in which the Doyles were the principal and most 
ruffianly participators. These wretches, on the same day, called at the 
houses of the Browns ; and, both in words and by acts, offered the 
grossest indignities to a daughter and daughter-in-law of the old man. 
As they went away, they said, ' Tell your men that if they don't leave 
right off, we'll come back to-morrow and kill them.' They added, in 
language too gross for publication, that the women would then suffer 
still worse indignities. 

" What redress could the husbands of these women have received 
had they asked the protection of the law? They would have been 
obliged to seek it from Wilkinson, one of these rufiians, who was the 
magistrate of the Potawatomie District! This instance had hundreds 
of parallels. 

"I do not know whether New England people will be able to vin- 
dicate the summary punishment inflicted on these wretches ; but I do 
know that nearly every Free-State man then in Kansas, when he came 
to know the cause, privately endorsed it as a righteous act, although 
many of them, ' to save the party,' publicly repudiated and condemned it. 

" These facts I derived from two squatters who aided in the execu- 
tion, and who were not ashamed of the part they took in it. Neither 
of them was a son of John Brown. They were settlers in the neigh- 
borhood. 

" John Brown himself subsequently corroborated their statements, 
without knowing that they had made them, by his account of the affair 
and denial of any participation in it. ' But, remember,' he added, ' I 
do not say this to exculpate myself ; for, although I took no hand in it, 



272 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

I would have advised it had I known the circumstances ; and I endorsed 
it as it was.' 

" ' Time and the honest verdict of posterity,' he said, in his Vir- 
ginia cell, ' will approve of every act of mine. ' I think it will also en- 
dorse all the acts that he endorsed ; and among them this righteous 
slaughter of the ruffians at Potawatomie. John Brown did not know 
that these men were killed until the following day ; for, with one of his 
sons, he was twenty-five miles distant at the time. He was at Middle 
Creek. This fact can be proved by living witnesses. It is false, also, 
that the ruffians were cruelly killed. They were tried, made confession, 
allowed time to pray, and then slain in a second." 

R. J. Hinton has said : " Doyle was engaged with others 
in a fiendish attempt to outrage the persons of Captain 
Brown's daughter and daughter-in-law, the wife of one of 
Brown's sons." 

A brother of John Brown, in the Cleveland Plaindealer^ 
November 29, 1859, says: 

" My brother John and his two sons were living in the same neigh- 
borhood, and a committee of five from the border ruffian camp called 
upon him, and said they were instructed to warn him that if the Free- 
State men were found there the next Thursday night, they would kill 
every one of them." 

Dr. G. W. Brown, in his " Reminiscences of Old John 
Brown," gives other current reasons or excuses for this 
massacre. Among them are these : " A band of pro-slavery 
men went to the house of John, Jr., insulted his wife, burned 
his cabin, and drove off his cattle." 

" John Brown's cabin was burned, his blooded stock were 
driven off, and the women of his family were grossly in- 
sulted. Wilkinson, Sherman, and the Doyles were caught 
in the act of hanging a Free-State man, and were shot by 
friends of the injured party." 

John Brown is reported as saying, in a speech before the 
Legislature, at Boston, on the i8th of February, 1857 : 

" He saw a great deal of Buford's men in Kansas ; that they spoke 
without hesitation before him, because he employed himself as a sur- 



PURPOSE OF THE MASSACRE. 273 

veyor; and as nearly all the surveyors were pro-slavery men, they 
probably thought he was ' sound on the goose.' They told him all their 
plans ; what they intended to do ; how they were determined to drive 
off the Free-State men, and possess themselves of the Territory, and 
make it a slave State at all hazards, cost what it might. * * * They 
did not hesitate to threaten that they would burn, kill, scalp, and drive 
out the entire Free-State population of the Territory, if it was necessary 
to do so to accomplish their object." 

This is a partial report of the case, as made up by letter- 
writers and others, and it was the only case for many years, 
and until disinterested historians gathered their materials. 
Supposing the statements of Redpath, the correspondent of 
the Missouri Democrat, and others, had given substantially 
the facts, the Avriter of this excused the massacre as best he 
could, as an act of retributive justice for similar outrages 
already committed against Free-State men. But, unfortu- 
nately for the vindication of such an outrage, it was the first 
of its kind in Kansas, and a professed Free-State man com- 
menced this war of midnight assassination. It is now evi- 
dent, since the testimony of Townsley, admitted by the 
friends of Brown to be substantially correct, that this blow 
was not struck to punish criminals, or protect Free-State 
men, or to aid the cause of a free State in Kansas, but to 
involve the sections, North and South, in war, in accordance 
with Redpath's purpose, as given in his " Roving Editor," 
page 300, as follows : 

"I believed that a civil M'ar between the North and South would 
ultimate in insurrection, and that the Kansas troubles would probably 
create a military conflict of the sections. Hence I left the South, and 
went to Kansas ; and endeavored, personally and by my pen, to precipi- 
tate a revolution. That we failed — for I was not alone in this desire — 
was owing to the influence of prominent Republican statesmen, whose 
unfortunately conservative character of counsel — which it was impos- 
sible openly to resist — effectually baffled all our hopes : hopes which 
Democratic action was auspiciously promoting." 

The testimony of Townsley would seem to be conclusive 
on this point. He says, as already quoted : 

18 



274 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



" He [Brown] said he wanted me to pilot the company up to the 
forks of the creek, some five or six miles above, into the neighborhood 
where I lived, and show them where all the pro-slavery men resided ; 
that he proposed to sweep the creek as he came down of all the pro- 
slavery men living on it." 

Again he says : 

" Brown wanted me to pilot the party into the neighborhood where 
I lived, and point out all the pro-slavery men in it, whom he proposed 
to put to death. I positively refused to do it, and on account of my re- 
fusal I remained in camp all of the night when the first attack was to be 
made, and the next day." 

From this testimony it appears that John Brown was not 
hunting for criminals who had insulted his family, driven off 
his stock, killed his son or any one else, but simply for pro- 
slavery men, innocent or guilty, it mattered not which. It 
has been seen that Brown could tell the Massachusetts 
Legislature only that the pro-slavery men had used " threats " 
of driving off Free-State men. He didn't pretend that any 
one had been driven off or molested in any manner. When 
it is known that such threats were as plenty as blue-berries 
in June, on both sides, all over the Territory, and were re- 
garded as of no more importance than the idle wind, this 
indictment will hardly justify midnight assassination of all 
pro-slavery men, whether making threats or not. Governor 
George A. Crawford, in a letter to Eli Thayer dated August 
4, 1879, says that Brown "gave as a reason" (for the 
slaughter) that the men were carriers of news to the Mis- 
sotirians, that they kept a " grape-vine telegraph " with Mis- 
sourians, and were endangering the settlements by bringing 
in invaders. 

And John Brown, Jr., in the Cleveland Plaindealer, says : 
" The Doyles, Wilkinson, and Sherman were fiunishing places 
of rendezvous and active aid to armed men who had sworn 
to kill us and others." Here are more threats. Had all 
men been killed in Kansas who indulged in such threats, 
there would have been none left to bury the dead. 



INDIGNATION MEETING. 275 

John Brown, Jr., and H. H. Williams, both prominent 
men at or near Osawatomie, were brought to the camp of 
the treason prisoners soon after this massacre, and neither 
gave information of any wrong-doing on the part of the men 
killed. And Mrs. Brown, wife of John, Jr., associated inti- 
mately with Mrs. Robinson, Mrs. Jenkins, and others in 
camp, but never referred to any outrage or threatened vio- 
lence upon her person. But a report of a meeting of men 
of both parties has been discovered and published, which 
ought to be conclusive. It is referred to in Andrea's his- 
tory, on page 132, as follows: 

" At a meeting of the citizens of Potawatomie Creek, without dis- 
tinction of parties, held at the branch between Messrs. Potter and Par- 
tridges, on the 27th day of May, 1856 (three days after the killing), C. 
H. Rice was chosen chairman and H. H. Williams secretary. The 
chairman then stated the object of the meeting, and a committee was 
appointed to take the subject under consideration. The committee 
consisted of R. Golding, R. Gilpatrick, N. C. Dow, S. V. Vanderman, 
A. Castele, and John Blunt. After consultation, the committee reported 
the following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously 
adopted, and a copy of them ordered to be printed. 

" ' Whereas, an outrage of the darkest and foulest nature has been 
committed in our midst by some midnight assassins unknown, who have 
taken five of our citizens at the hour of midnight from their homes and 
families, and murdered and mangled them in an awful manner ; to pre- 
vent a repetition of these deeds, we deem it necessary to adopt some 
measures for our mutual protection and to aid and assist in bringing 
these desperadoes to justice. Under these circumstances, we propose 
to act up to the following resolutions : 

" ' Resolved, That we will from this time lay aside all sectional and 
political feelings and act together as men of reason and common sense, 
determined to oppose all men who are so ultra in their views as to de- 
nounce men of opposite opinions. 

" ' Resolved, That we will repudiate and discountenance all organized 
bands of men who leave their homes for the avowed purpose of exciting 
others to acts of violence, believing it to be the duty of all good-disposed 
citizens to stay at home during these exciting times and protect, and, if 
possible, restore the peace and harmony of the neighborhood ; further- 
more, we will discountenance all armed bodies of men who may come 
amongst us from any other part of the Territory or from the States, un- 
less said parties shall come under the authority of the United States. 



Committee. 



276 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" ' Resolved, That we pledge ourselves, individually and collectively, 
to prevent a recurrence of a similar tragedy, and to ferret out and hand 
over to the criminal authorities the perpetrators ior punishment. 

" ' H. H. Williams, Secretary, 
" ' C. H. Price, President, 
" ' R. GoLDiNG, Chairman, 

■' ' R. GiLPATRICK, 

'" N. C. Dow, 

" ' S. V. Vanderman, 

'"A. Castele, 

" 'John Blunt, 

Among the active men of this meeting are some of the 
most radical Free-State men of the Territory, and most 
certainly had there been any palliation or excuse for this kill- 
ing, it would have been given.* 

Did this slaughter of five men and boys quiet the disturb- 
ance in the Territory ? As has been seen, the official dis- 
turbances had run their course, and the members of the last 
Marshal's posse had retired to their homes in Missouri or 
elsewhere, with but few exceptions. Up to this time no Free- 
State men had been killed south of Douglas County, not- 
withstanding the statement to the contrary of Redpath and 
others, and no such massacre as that on the Potawatomie 
had ever occurred anywhere within the Territory or without. 
Its equal in atrocity must be sought for in the dark ages, as 
it cannot be found in modern times. No violence had been 
offered in southern Kansas of a serious character except at 
Stanton, in Miami County. This is thus recorded in 
Andrea's history, page 895 : 

"At the meeting of April 16, 1856, at which resolutions were adopted 
against the payment of taxes, and at which John Brown made an abo- 
lition speech, the Rev. Mr. White several times offensively interrupted 
the speaker. As the reverend gentleman was generally exceedingly ob- 
noxious to the Free-State men, a few nights after the above-mentioned 
meeting occurred, a party of twelve of them attacked his house, open- 
ing fire upon it. The firing was vigorously replied to by those inside. 
The attacking party soon retired, taking White's horses with them. On 

* See Appendix A. 



EFFECT ON JOHN BROWN, JR. 277 

the next day White moved to Missouri, settling permanently in Bates 
County." 

As will be seen, this same Rev. Martin White, after this 
massacre, had the satisfaction of killing Frederick Brown, 
just before the battle of Osawatomie. 

Here is the only serious disturbance with deadly weapons 
in southern Kansas so far as known, and that happened to 
be on the wrong side to be pleaded as an excuse for the 
midnight slaughter by John Brown, May 24th, of the same 
year. If no unusual troubles can be found existing before 
May 24th in southern Kansas, did any occur after that date, 
and if so, were they " quieted " or caused and aggravated 
by John Brown's new warfare ? It is claimed by Redpath 
and others that Brown's family were disturbed by pro-slavery 
men before this massacre. Although this claim is not sup- 
ported by evidence, how much better was their condition 
afterwards ? G. W. Brown, in his " Reminiscences of Old 
John Brown," page 30, gives this account of the effect of the 
massacre on John Brown, Jr. : 

" John Brown, Jr., and H. H. Williams were brought into the camp, 
near Lecompton, about the i6th of June, 1856, and were held as pris- 
oners with us. They were indicted on the 27th of May, at Paola, then 
Lykins County, charged with 'conspiracy to resist the collection of 
taxes.' John was also suspected of responsibility for the Potawatomie 
murders, but I am glad to say there was no truth whatever in this alle- 
gation. He became an occupant of my tent, and remained with me 
some time after he was brought into camp. He was partly insane : his 
mind seemed continually running on the Potawatomie massacre, and he 
appeared to suppose he was under arrest for that ofTense. During the 
entire period he was with us — nearly three months — whenever that event 
was mentioned in his hearing his eyes would flash and sparkle like a 
mad man's. He would exhibit the wildest excitement, and express 
himself in the severest terms at the enormity of the outrage. On 
several occasions I attempted to allay his irritation by offering an apology 
for it. He replied invariably: ' There can be no apology for such a 
transaction. Every feature of it was too barbarous to admit of an 
apology.' And then I would divert his mind as speedily as possible, 
engage his thoughts on some other subject, when he would gradually 
regain his composure. 



278 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

' ' In his ravings about these murders on the Potawatomie, John, Jr. , 
told me of the incidents lying between his disbanding his command 
when the news reached him, on the morning after its committal, until 
his arrest. He said his best friends in Osawatomie turned the ' cold 
shoulder ' on him when he arrived in the town ; a public meeting of 
Free-State men was soon held, which repudiated it, and denounced the 
actors ; he called on his wife and child, and made his way to the bottom 
lands, where he secreted himself behind logs and trees. He forded the 
river several times to avoid exposure. A severe storm of rain and 
lightning came on, and he thought, in the flashes, he could see his pur- 
suers. He said he suffered for food ; but his wife occasionally found 
and relieved him. Finally, at the suggestion of his friends, he volun- 
tarily surrendered himself to the civil authorities, and was taken in 
charge by Federal troops. He was removed to Paola; thence to Te- 
cumseh, where he had a hearing before United States Commissioner 
Hoagland, and was sent to camp for safe-keeping. He represented 
that he was bound with ropes and chains, and was compelled to ' trot 
along,' thus bound, between two horsemen, for forty miles, in a hot 
June sun." 

The effect upon old Brown himself may be learned from 
the Springfield, Mass., Republican. It says : 

" In a letter written to his wife and children at North Elba in June, 
1856, Brown gave the only written account of the expedition which has 
been received from him. Portions of this letter have been published, 
but not the whole. In it he says : * On the second day and evening 
after we left John's men — which was Saturday, May 22, 1856 — we en- 
countered quite a number of pro-slavery men, and took quite a number 
prisoners. Our prisoners we let go, but we kept some four or five 
horses. We were immediately after this accused of murdering five men 
at Potawatomie, and great efforts have since been made by the Mis- 
sourians and ruffian allies to capture us. John's company soon after- 
ward disbanded, and also the Osawatomie men.' 

" In the original letter, which was written in pencil, something has 
been erased after this, and a note on the margin, in Brown's handwrit- 
ing, adds : ' There are but very few who wish real facts about these 
matters to go out.' Apparently Brown himself is willing that the real 
facts should be known, but, for the sake of others, does not state them. 
Towards the end of the letter, after describing the fight at Black Jack, 
the burning of his son's house at Brown's Station, on INIiddle Creek, 
ten miles west of Osawatomie, and other ' trying events,' Brown says : 

" ' Since then we have, like David of old, had our dwellings with the 
serpents of the rocks and wild beasts of the wilderness, being obliged to 



EFFECT ON TREASON PRISONERS. 279 

hide away from our enemies. We are not disheartened, though nearly 
destitute of food, clothing, and money. God, who has not given us 
over to the will of our enemies, but has, moreover, delivered them into 
our hands, will, we humbly trust, still keep and deliver us. We feel 
assured that He who sees not as men see does not lay the guilt of in- 
nocent blood to our charge.' " 

It is very remarkable that this man, who, according to 
F. B. Sanborn and others, put an end forever to all difficul- 
ties in Kansas by this "one stroke," should himself become 
an outlaw, and have to dwell "with the serpents of the 
rocks and wild beasts of the wilderness." If the pro-slavery 
men had been all driven from the Territory, and profound 
peace reigned, as some of his eulogists claim, who was there 
to trouble either him, the " Liberator," or his son? 

As has been stated, Deitzler, G. W. Brown, Jenkins, and 
Smith were arrested for treason on or about the 21st of 
May, and taken to Lecompton by the Marshal. G. W. 
Brown, in his " Reminiscences," page 12, gives the effect of 
the news of this massacre, as follows : 

" On Sunday, late in the afternoon of the 25th of May, '56, informa- 
tion was given to the treason prisoners, at Lecompton, of whom the 
writer had the honor of being one, that a terrible massacre of pro- 
slavery men had been perpetrated on Potawatomie Creek ; that the news 
had reached the Kickapoo Rangers, Atchison Tigers, and such other 
pro-slavery organizations as were still about Lecompton after their suc- 
cessful raid of the 21st on Lawrence. The excitement was reported 
very high among them. 

" On the evening of the 25th, Marshal Donelson entered the build- 
ing in person, and said that a party were organizing among the Rangers, 
Tigers, etc., to take the prisoners and hang them in retaliation for these 
murders. He said he had learned that we were all Odd Fellows or 
Masons ; that he had so reported ; and besides enlisting all the terri- 
torial officers, including the Governor, Judges, etc., and such members 
of the Order as he could find in Lecompton, he had found some in the 
several companies, and with these he hoped to be able to save us ; that 
they should stand guard through the night, and if an attack was made 
he should place arms in our hands, that we might aid in our own de- 
fense. 

" The guard was kept up for the night. The next day the Marshal's 
' posse ' were again discharged, and left Lecompton ; but Donelson 



28o THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

himself remained with us in the room for the night, for our protection 
against contingencies, as he asserted." 

Robinson arrived at Westport, Missouri, as has been stated, 
on the 2oth of May, and there remained until the service of 
the writs at Lawrence on the 21st, when he was taken to 
Lecompton by way of Leavenworth. He was at Leaven- 
worth when the news of the kiUing was received. 

A Westport paper had pubhshed an account of the kilhng 
of " eight pro-slavery men " on the Potawatomie, whose bod- 
ies were brutally mutilated, and this was republished in the 
Leavenworth Herald. The excitement in the town was in- 
tense. A public meeting was held, and steps taken to drive 
all Free-State men and women from Leavenworth. G. W. 
Brown, in his book, says, on page 23, as follows : 

" Governor Robinson was taken by a mob at Lexington, Missouri, 
while descending the Missouri in company with his wife. He was de- 
tained there for a few days ; thence taken by way of Westport, to Franklin, 
within four miles of Lawrence ; thence back to Kansas City, and up the 
Missouri to Leavenworth, where he arrived on the eve of these murders 
on the Potawatomie. The news of the massacre caused the most in- 
tense excitement. It was all that active pro-slavery men, who were 
warm personal friends of the Governor, some of whom were under last- 
ing obligations to him for favors rendered in California and on his way 
thither, could do to save him from violent death. Indeed, the people 
were wrought up to such a furious frenzy that his death was expected 
at any moment. An eye-witness of the scene told me that the cooler 
and better class of the citizens, thinking they were powerless to save 
him, wept like children as one by one they took him by the hand and 
bade him farewell. 

"The Congressional Investigating Committee were in session at 
Leavenworth. They could not proceed with business because of the 
excitement, hence removed to Kansas City, where they also found it 
impossible, with personal safety, to continue their investigations, and 
left for Washington, one of the members remaining long enough to ob- 
tain afifidavits detailing the incidents of this awful tragedy, portions of 
which I have copied. In his minority report to Congress, he said of 
these murders : ' In savage barbarity and demoniac cruelty they have 
scarcely an equal in the history of civilized man.' The majority of the 
Committee were compelled to stultify themselves, and throw out im- 



EFFECTS IN LEAVENWORTH. 28 1 

portant evidence they had already taken, in order to suppress the loath- 
some details of the butchery. 

" A lady resident of Leavenworth, at the time the news of the tragedy 
reached the city, told me, on her way up the Missouri in the following 
spring, returning for the first time after the occurrence to Kansas, of its 
effects on the Free-State population there. She said a public meeting 
of pro-slavery men was immediately called, when the account of the 
Potawatomie massacre was narrated to the already crazed pro-slavery 
mob. The most violent denunciatory and threatening speeches were 
made. Resolutions were passed of a fiery character, setting forth that 
the first blood had been shed by the Free-State men ; that the midnight 
assassins were not satisfied with simply murdering their victims, but 
that they had mutilated them in a shameful manner. They declared 
that it was impossible for the abolitionists and the pro-slavery settlers 
to live together in Kansas, and that the former must leave. She said a 
body of armed men marched through the streets, visiting each dwelling, 
and ordered every Free-State man, woman, and child to go at once to 
the levee. They would not allow her even to close her house ; but with 
her chidren she was marched to the river, where she found hundreds of 
others. All were forced upon a steamer lying at the levee, including 
her husband, whom she found there. The Captain was ordered to take 
these involuntary passengers to Alton, and there leave them. She re- 
mained in that city until the spring of 1857, when she returned with 
her husband, and again settled in the Territory." 

Phillips, in his " Conquest of Kansas," page 31S, says: 

" On the morning of the 28th of May [four days after the murders, 
as the reader will observe], the office of the Leavenworth Herald issued 
a reprint of a violent ' war ' extra of the Westport paper, the design of 
which was to excite the border men to acts of violence against the Free- 
State settlers of Kansas. In the forenoon of that day a pro-slavery 
meeting was held, at which Stringfellow and General Richardson were 
prominent actors. At this meeting it was decreed that all persons who 
had taken an active part as Free-State men must leave the Territory." 

When Robinson arrived at Leavenworth, he was placed 
in charge of Captain William Martin, of the Kickapoo Ran- 
gers, and three assistants. On the day of the e.xcitement, 
Captain Martin was called to attend private meetings of 
the pro-slavery men, reporting occasionally to his prisoner 
the determination relative to himself. He said the pro-slav- 



282 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

ery men wanted him to surrender his prisoner that night, and 
when he declined, they wanted him to lock him in a room 
and leave him without a guard. He said he got mad and 
told them that when a prisoner was placed in his charge 
by the United States Government, he would protect that 
prisoner while his own life should last. Martin had served 
one or more enlistments in the United States army, and had 
a sense of honor which all civiHans did not possess. Being 
Captain of the Kickapoo Rangers, he had acquired a bad 
reputation, but it was not wholly deserved. According to tes- 
timony before the Congressional Committee, he did what he 
could to save the life of R. P. Brown, killed at Easton, and 
surely no man could have acted more honorably than he did 
while he held the writer as prisoner. It is doubtful if there 
was another pro-slavery man who would or could have 
saved him from the wrath of the excited mob. 

In the afternoon, the keeper announced a caller, who was 
shown into the parlor of the Shawnee House, where the 
prisoner was guarded. This caller seemed much affected, 
and immediately left the room without speaking. He, how- 
ever, soon returned, and asked the prisoner if he remem- 
bered him ? On being answered in the negative, he said, 
" Do you remember attending a young physician attacked 
with cholera at Kansas City the night before you started 
overland for Cahfornia in 1849?" On being answered in 
the affirmative, he said, " Well, I am that physician, and you 
saved my life, and I have been trying all day to save yours, 
but have so far failed. They have determined to kill you 
to-night, and I can't prevent it." In saying this, he shed 
tears like a child. Robinson tried to console him in his dis- 
tress, saying it might result better than he feared ; at any rate, 
all had to die once, and it was not very material as to the 
time. This physician's name is Dr. Ridge, of Kansas City, 
now a millionaire and influential citizen. Although then 
pro-slavery, he is and was a gentleman with a large and 
generous heart. 



EFFECT OF THE MASSACRE. 283 

However, the officials did not agree to the programme of 
the meeting, and Judge Lecompte and Marshal Donelson 
slept by the door of the prisoner's room, while General 
Richardson occupied his bed. Early the next morning, be- 
fore the excited people were on the street, a company of 
United States dragoons from Fort Leavenworth appeared 
with an empty saddle, which was soon filled by the prisoner, 
when he was taken to Lecompton to join the other " traitors " 
on the prairie, under charge of United States troops. 

As another evidence of the " quieting " effect of John 
Brown's warfare, inaugurated on the Potawatomie, a few 
extracts are given from Mrs. Robinson's " Kansas." On 
retiu-ning from the East, about the first of June, she was 
compelled to remain several days at Kansas City on account 
of the disturbances in the Territory. She reports as follows, 
beginning on page 273 : 

" I arrived at Kansas City on the night of June 3d, at twelve o'clock, 
after my Eastern flying trip, and in hopes soon to join my husband. 
* * * The last day or two of the trip on the Missouri River rumors 
of war became more frequent. Inflammatory extras were thrown upon 
the boats at different landings. People at Lexington, and other points 
along the river, were much excited and preparing for a new invasion. 
The extras stated the murder of eight pro-slavery men, by the abolition- 
ists, and the cruel mutilation of their bodies ; the death of the United 
States Marshal, of H. C. Pate, and J. McGee. Deeds of blood and 
violence, of which they were hourly guilty, were charged upon the 
Free-State men. The following is a sample of the incendiary extras 
which flew through the border counties: ' Murder is the watchword and 
midnight deed of a scattered and scouting band of abolitionists, who had 
courage only to fly from the face of the wronged and insulted people, 
when met at their own solicitation. Men, peaceable and quiet, cannot 
travel on the public roads of Kansas, without being caught, searched, 
imprisoned, and their lives, perhaps, taken. No Southerner dare vent- 
ure alone and unarmed on her roads ! ' Such were the false statements 
made to arouse the passions of the border men. 



" The threats of destroying this hotel were still frequent, and nightly 
the danger of attack was imminent. The Mayor of the city had kept 
out a guard one or two nights. But he had declined doing this longer. 



284 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

and, a meeting of the citizens being called, it was decided to ask the 
' Eldridges ' to sell the hotel, to save it from the fury of the South Caro- 
linians and border men ; they expressed to them at the same time their 
regret that such was the excitement against it. 

" Again and again the mob had assembled, and with groans, whose 
hideousness no one can appreciate who was not forced to listen, and 
with yells, declared the house should come down. The ' Eldridges ' 
proposed their terms, which were accepted, and, on the morning of the 
tenth, the hotel passed into the keeping of two pro-slavery men. * * * 
Robberies and murders were repeated every day in the early part of 
June. Every evening's intelligence was of some fresh outrage. * * * 

" A Mr. Cantrell, then recently from Missouri, but a Free-State man, 
was taken prisoner on the evening of the 5th of June by one of General 
Whitfield's scouting parties. On the next day he was carried down the 
Santa Fe road. At Cedar Creek he was taken out into a ravine by two 
men. Then there was a shot; — then a cry, ' O, God, I am shot! — I 
am murdered! ' Then another shot, and a long piercing scream; — 
another shot, and all was still! 

" A Mr. Bailey narrowly escaped a violent death, and through many 
sufferings at last reached his friends. He had started from his home to 
get a load of provisions for himself and his neighbors. When near Bull 
Creek, Coleman, who had twenty men encamped close by, came and 
ordered him to stop over night. Among these twenty men were Buck- 
ley and Hargous, his accomplices in the murder of Dow. In the morn- 
ing his horses were missing, their halters having been cut. The men 
expressed sympathy for his loss, and told him the horses could be found 
in the camp at Cedar Creek, and they proposed to go with him to find 
them. Before reaching Cedar Creek they met a company of two hun- 
dred men. A consultation was held with them, and Coleman said, 
* There may be treachery used.' 

" Soon after the company passed on, three men took Mr. Bailey into 
the prairie about one hundred yards from the road, and demanded his 
money ; without hesitation or one word of objection he gave them forty- 
five dollars, all he had. One of the men raised his gun as though 
he would fire. Mr. Bailey said, ' If you mean to kill me, you will 
kill a better man than yourself ; ' to which the ruffian, lowering his 
gun, replied, * I wish you to take off those pantaloons ; perhaps they 
will get bloody.' But Mr. Bailey said, ' They are mine as long as I 
live. ' 

" This tool of the Administration, armed with a United States mus- 
ket, again raised his gun and fired. The ball struck Mr. Bailey in the 
side, glancing along the ribs, and lodged in the back. Mr. Bailey fell, 
and was struck at again and again with the musket. Then two of the 



PRO-SLAVERY RETALIATION. 285 

men disappeared, and left this more than demon to finish the work of 
killing a peaceable man. He jumped on the body of the prostrate man, 
stamping on his face and head. But as Mr. Bailey caught hold of the 
musket, and was able to hold on upon it, the murderer ran after the 
others, calling upon them to return. They, however, were too far 
away. After lying in the grass three hours, Mr. Bailey attempted to 
find his way home. In doing so, he passed near their camp the next 
morning at daybreak, and for a while lay hid in the grass, to learn their 
movements. While there, he heard a cry, ' Are you going to hang me? ' 
and no reply, save the ringing of a bell. In about five minutes, he 
heard a shot, then a whistle, and six other shots at intervals of five 
minutes. He lay in the woods all day, and at night crawled along about 
two miles ; was hid near the Wakarusa all the next day ; saw a wagon 
stopped by five men ; heard angry words, and a shot fired. In the 
night, worn down by his sufferings from the wound and bruises, having 
had nothing to drink but stagnant water, he reached the house of Dr. 
Still, at Blue Mound. 

"A young man, by the name of Hill, was going to Missouri, also 
for provisions, and as night came, he asked two men on the road where 
he could find water for his horses. They said they would show him, if 
he would go with them. When he had gone with them to the ravine, 
where they said he would find water, they searched him, took whatever 
he had of money, and threatened to kill him. He told them he had 
a mother, and young brothers and sister dependent on him ; that day 
after day, as she looked out for his coming, and night only brought a 
renewal of the sad suspense as to his fate, in sorrow she would go to 
the grave ; but there was no pity in their hearts, no mercy. They tied 
the young man's arms behind him, and, bending his feet backwards, 
tied them also to his arms ; then put a stick an inch and a half wide in 
his mouth, prying it open, and tied the string back of his head. Then, 
more barbarous than the New Zealanders, they cut places in his hat, 
and tied that also over his face, and laid him face downwards on the 
stones. They went away, leaving him to die. 

"After a time they came back ; and, as one placed his pistol directly 
over his eye, he feeling its pressure through the hat, the other said, 
' Don't shoot him ; he will not go any further on his journey to-night.' 
They left again to report at the camp, probably, another victim to the 
vile tools of slavery propagandism. 

" When this young man found himself again alone, and thought they 
would not return, he commenced making an effort to extricate himself 
from his painful position. By working his boot upon the sharp stones, 
he found the rope loose enough for him to draw his foot out. His feet 
were thus left at liberty, while one boot was swinging on his back. By 



286 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

working his hat between his knees, he was able to pull it off his face. 
Then with the strip of board still lacerating his mouth, and hands fas- 
tened with strong cords behind him, he set out to find some house in 
the darkness of the night. 

" He had come from Iowa in the spring, and was but little acquainted 
with the country. After travelling eleven miles, he knew, by the bark- 
ing of the dogs, he was near a house, but was unable to get over the 
fence. The strange cries he made at last attracted the attention of the 
family, but, supposing him to be a drunken Indian, they did not at first 
come to his aid. He was, however, cared for by them. Elliot, who 
with Titus pledged five hundred dollars for the head of Captain Walker, 
when the United States Marshal offered, with his usual servility, to 
send a posse for him, was one of the actors in this savage transaction. 
Other men were continually shot and robbed. 

" A man who had a pass from United States Marshal Donelson, 
with a load of freight, was returning to his home in the Territory. On 
the evening of the day he left he returned, robbed of his money, wagon, 
and oxen, and saved his life only by a promise to leave the Territory. 
The men who attacked him were encamped about two miles from West- 
port, armed, as all their men were, with United States rifles and side 
arms. 

" The questions asked of him were, ' Where do you live ? Where 
are you from ? What are your politics ? How much money did that 
d — d Emigrant Aid Society give you to come out here? What the h — 1 
did you come out here for ? Did you come to make Kansas a free 
State ? Why didn't you go to Nebraska ? That's a good country, and 
you d — d Yankees may have it ; but Kansas you'll have to fight for, and 
we'll whip h — 1 out of you, but we'll get it, Union or no Union! 
That's a game that must win, I am thinking.' The question was finally 
asked, ' If we will let you go, will you take a gun and march with the 
pro-slavery party ? ' 

"'JVever/' was the invariable reply. In an instant, the cry re- 
sounded through the camp, ' The rope, boys, the rope I ' 

" It was thrown over his head, and he was dragged to the nearest 
tree, exclaiming, ' You do not intend to kill me in this manner, do 
you ? ' 

" The reply was, ' Yes, G — d d — n your abolition heart, and all like 
you !' 

" He asked, if he was thus to be sacrificed, for time to collect his 
thoughts, and arrange his worldly affairs. The fiends told him he 
could have ten minutes to make any disposal of his property, and his 
peace with God. He then gave a list of his effects to one of the cap- 
tains, asking him to send it East to his friends ; and, at the expiration 
of the ten minutes, the rope was thrown over a limb and they jerked him 



OUTRAGES SUBSEQUENT TO MASSACRE. 287 

from the ground. After being let down, he was asked, ' Will you leave 
the Territory, if we'll spare your life ? ' 

" The prisoner objected, stating he had broken no law, infringed 
upon no man's rights. The leader, who had ordered him let down 
when hanging, again interposed, saying he must make this promise, or 
lose his life. He told the men that this gentleman had a ' right to be a 
Free-State man, though no right to hold such views in Kansas ; that he 
was guilty of no crime.' With a guard he was sent back to Kansas 
City. 

" Others, going out with loaded teams, soon returned, having gone 
through the same operation of questioning and hanging. In one in- 
stance, as one was released, and left the camp, he heard the screams of 
another man in the camp across the road. * * * 

" A young man and his wife, formerly from Iowa, came to Kansas 
City. They were fearful, and dared not stay longer in the Territory. 
Nine yoke of cattle, which he was going to take into Iowa to sell, were 
taken from him by a ruffianly band just as he approached Kansas City. 
Some gentlemen stopping at Kansas, who had lost teams on their 
way down, were anxious to get back into the Territory. They started 
one day, but returned ere its close. They thought, by going on foot, 
and keeping off of the travelled roads, they should be able to get through 
without molestation ; but, when about twelve miles out, they fell into 
the enemy's hands. They were released after a time, and advised to 
return to Kansas City, 'as they would meet other bands, where they 
might fare worse.' " 

Phillips, in his " Conquest of Kansas," relates as follows : 

"While near Osawatomie, he contrived to seize two of the old 
man's sons — Captain John Brown, Jr., and Mr. Jason Brown. These 
were taken while quietly engaged in their avocations. Captain Brown, 
Jr., had been up with his company at Lawrence, immediately after the 
sacking of the place, and at the time the men at Potawatomie were 
killed. He had returned home when he saw he could not aid Law- 
rence, and quietly went to work. He and his brother Jason were taken 
by Pate, charged with murder, kept in irons in their camp, and treated 
with the greatest indignity and inhumanity. While Pate was thus tak- 
ing people prisoners without legal authority or writs, he was joined by 
Captain Wood's company of dragoons, who, so far from putting a stop 
to his violent career, aided him in it, and took from him, at his desire, 
two prisoners, keeping them under guard in their camp, heavily ironed 
and harshly treated. While these companies were thus travelling close 
to each other. Captain Pate's company burned the store of a man named 
Winer, a German; the home of John Brown, Jr., in which, among a 



288 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

variety of household articles, a valuable library was consumed ; and also 
the house of another of the Browns — for the old man had six grown 
sons ; and also searched houses, men, and Free-State settlers, and acted 
in a violent and lawless manner generally. Not being able to find Cap- 
tain Brown, Sr., at Osawatomie, Pate's company and the troops started 
back for the Santa Fe road." 

James Redpath, in the "Life of Brown," on pages 136 
and 137, says: 

" When the news of the defeat of Clay Pate reached Missouri, a 
force of twenty-one hundred mounted men, not one of them citizens of 
Kansas, set out from the border village of Westport, under the lead of 
the territorial delegate to Congress, with the triple purpose of rescu- 
ing their brother-highwaymen, seizing Old Brown, and completing the 
conquest of the disputed land. * * * But the Federal troops has- 
tened down, and induced the Missourians to retire ; which, knowing our 
readiness to fight, they willingly consented to do ; but not until, in cold 
blood, they had murdered seven Free-State men, not one of whom was 
armed, when they were taken prisoners by the invading forces. Mr. 
Cantrell was murdered by a ruffian named Forman, one of Captain 
Pate's men, who was wounded at Black Jack, carefully nursed at Prairie 
City, and dismissed by his captors uninjured. Of such were the South- 
ern companies." 

Other testimony of the " quieting " effect of the Potawat- 
omie massacre is given by Andreas on page 133 of his his- 
tory : 

" As soon as the news of the Ossawatomie murders reached the Mis- 
souri border towns, the soldiers just returned from Lawrence were 
rallied for a new invasion, not as before, under the call of the United 
States Marshal, but, as the pro-slavery papers put it, to protect the 
pro-slavery settlers who were being driven from their homes or slaugh- 
tered without mercy by their abolition neighbors." 

Holloway, in his history, on page 351, says that this oc- 
currence, the Potawatomie massacre, " was used as a pretext 
for new outrages by Southerners and Missourians. The 
usual ' war extras ' were issued," etc. 

Andreas, on page 132, says of Henry Clay Pate : 

" On hearing of the murders, he set out for Osawatomie with his 
company, with the design of 'capturing or killing old Brown,' who was 



ANDREA'S STATEMENT. 289 

assumed to be the leader of the murderous gang. The old man was in 
hiding on his arrival. Failing to find him, he took prisoners two of his 
sons, John Brown, Jr., and Jason, whom he found at work upon their 
claims, on suspicion of being accessories to the crime. They were 
charged with murder and put in irons. Other arrests of Free-State men 
were made and a few cabins burned. A company of United States 
dragoons, under Captain Wood, joined Pate soon after the arrests were 
made, and to them he turned over his prisoners. On the 31st the two 
companies moved together as far as Middle Ottawa Creek. There they 
separated. * * * Six of Henry Clay Pate's men had that day (June 
1st) made a raid on Palmyra, in retaliation for the Potawatomie mas- 
sacre, and had taken several prisoners, among them two of the Barrick- 
lows and Dr. Graham. They then concluded they would go over to 
Prairie City and take that village also." 

Page 133: 

" In addition to the command of Captain Pate, whose career was 
temporarily checked at Black Jack, a considerable force was raised at 
Westport, Independence, and other Missouri towns for a new invasion. 
The commander-in-chief was General Whitfield, the pro-slavery dele- 
gate to Congress, who had left the Investigating Committee, then in 
session at Leavenworth, to engage in the more congenial work of or- 
ganizing and leading a force from Missouri into the Territory, to 
' whale ' into submission the abolition part of the constituency he claimed 
to represent. The force with which he left Westport for the seat of 
war numbered something over two hundred and fifty men, well armed 
and accounted for a short campaign. He entered the Territory on 
June 2d." 

How "quieting"! These hostile demonstrations from 
Missouri once more called together the Free-State forces, 
which attacked and captured Pate on the 2d of June, and at- 
tacked, but did not capture, Frankhn on June 4th. Seeing 
a civil war being waged with all the earnestness of bitter 
partisans, Governor Shannon issued another proclamation, 
and called upon Colonel Sumner to enforce it. This proc- 
lamation begins with a " Whereas, information has been 
received by us that armed bodies of men exist in different 
parts of the Territory, who have committed and threaten to 
commit acts of lawless violence on peaceable and unoffend- 
ing citizens — taking them prisoners, despoihng them of their 



290 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



property, and threatening great personal violence." He 
proceeds to say that all illegal bodies of armed men must 
be dispersed, and all persons of whatever party must be pro- 
tected in their persons and property. 

Here is some official testimony as to the " quieting " effect 
of John Brown's war. In his letter to the President, dated 
May 31, 1S56, Governor Shannon has this: 

" I send you herewith three communications which I have received 
— one from General Heiskell, one from General Barbee, and the third 
from Judge Cato (Nos. 3, 4, and 5), detailing the circumstances attend- 
ing the murder of six men in the County of Franklin, which is the 
county immediately south of this. Comment is unnecessary. The re- 
spectability of the parties and the cruelties attending these murders have 
produced an extraordinary state of excitement in that portion of the 
Territory, which has heretofore remained comparatively quiet. As 
soon as I was advised of these horrid murders, I sent an express to 
Captain Wood, at Lawrence, to move out into that section of country 
with his whole command, and to protect the people as far as possible 
from these midnight assassins. He moved with his whole command 
immediately, but I have received no intelligence from him yet. I hope 
the offenders may be brought to justice ; if so, it may allay to a great 
extent the excitement ; otherwise, I fear the consequences. 

" At this time affairs seem to wear a favorable aspect, except in the 
Wakarusa valley, and south of Lawrence, in the region of country 
where the recent murders were perpetrated." 

Judge Cato testifies : 

" Paola, Lykins County, May 27, 1856. 

"Dear Sir: You will have learned, perhaps, before this reaches 
you, that Mr. Allen Wilkinson, Mr. Doyle and two sons, and Mr. 
Sherman, all of Franklin County, were on Saturday night last most 
foully and barbarously murdered. There can be no doubt of the fact 
that such murders have been perpetrated, and that the community, as I 
understand, generally suspect that the Browns and Partridges are the 
guilty parties. I shall do everything in my power to have the matter 
investigated, and there seems to be a disposition on the part of the 
Free-State men in Franklin to aid in having the laws enforced. As 
soon as the proper evidence can be procured, warrants will be issued 
for the arrest of the parties suspected, and I have promised the officers 
to whom these warrants will be intrusted all the aid necessary to exe- 
cute the law. These murders were most foully committed in the night 



OFFICIAL TESTIMONY. 29 1 

time by a gang of some twelve or fifteen persons, calling on, and drag- 
ging from their houses, defenseless and unsuspecting citizens, and, 
after murdering, mutilating their bodies in a very shocking manner. 

" As the murders were committed in the night, it has been difficult, 
so far, to identify the perpetrators. I hope, however, that sufficient 
evidence may be procured. 

" Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" General William Barbee.'''' 

" Camp Headquarters, Second Brigade, 

"Southern Division, Kansas Militia, 

" Paola, Monday morning. May 25, 1856. 
" Dear Sir : We were all surprised this morning by the sad intelli- 
gence that Allen Wilkinson (late member of the Legislature) was, to- 
gether with a Mr. Sherman and three Messrs. Doyle, on Saturday 
night taken from their beds by the abolitionists, and, in the hearing of 
their families, ruthlessly murdered and hacked to pieces ; also, a man 
found dead at the Potawatomie. There were some twenty in the gang. 
All is excitement here ; court cannot go on. 

" I have just had an interview with the bereaved wife and family, 
that they spared, also a McMinn ; all of whom I am acquainted with, so 
that there can be no doubt as to the correctness of the report. Families 
are leaving for Missouri. Yankees concentrating at Osawatomie and 
upon the Potawatomie, also at Hickory Point, where they have driven 
off the inhabitants without even provisions or clothing, save what they 
had on. 

" We can, perhaps, muster to-day, including the Alabamians, who 
are now encamped on Bull Creek, about a hundred and fifty men, but 
will need a force here. I have dispatched to Fort Scott for one hundred 
men. The men will come from Fort Scott under Major Hill. There 
will be more men in readiness, if needed, at Fort Scott. We are desti- 
tute of arms ; send wagons for both my brigade and General Heiskell's, 
we are together ; we have scarcely any arms. I wait further orders. 
" Your obedient servant, 

" William Barbee, 
" Commanding Second Brigade, S. D. K. M." 

General William A. Heiskell writes : 

" Paola, May 26, 1856. 

" Dear Sir: All here is excitement and confusion. We have just 
heard of the murder on Saturday night of Allen Wilkinson, Doyle and 
his two brothers, and William Sherman ; all living in Franklin County, 
near Potawatomie Creek. The body of another man has been found at 
the ford of Potawatomie. These murders, it is supposed, were com- 



zg: 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



mitted by the abolitionists of Osawatomie and Potawatomie creeks, on 
their return from Lawrence. 

"How long shall these things continue ? H ow long shall our citizens, 
unarmed and defenseless, be exposed to this worse than savage cruelty? 
Wilkinson, it is said, was taken from his bed, leaving a sick wife and 
children, and butchered in their sight. The two young Doyles were 
unarmed, and shot down on the prairie like dogs. 

" We have here but few men, and they wholly unarmed. We shall 
gather together for our own defense as many men as we can ; we hope 
you will send us as many arms as possible, and if, under the circum- 
stances, you can do so, send as many men as you may think necessary. 
General Barbee is here. He has sent to Fort Scott for aid. We must 
organize such forces as we can, but for God's sake send arms. General 
Coflfey is in the neighborhood ; I have not yet had an opportunity to see 
him ; he will be here to-day. 

" We hope to be able to identify some of the murderers, as Mr. 
Harris, who was in their hands, was released, and will probably know 
some of them. Yours truly, 

" William A. Heiskell. 

" Governor Wilson Shannoti. 

Colonel Sumner, in his letter to the Adjutant-General of 
the army, dated May 28, 1856, says : " From present appear- 
ances, it looks very much like running into a guerrilla war- 
fare. * * * As the affair now stands, there is great 
danger of our being compelled to use force." 

Governor Shannon writes : 

" Executive Office, Lecompton, K. T., May 27, 1856. 
" Sir: I received last night, about twelve o'clock, reliable informa- 
tion by a special dispatch from Osawatomie, in the County of Franklin, 
that on last Saturday night five persons had been taken out of their 
houses and cruelly murdered ; that it seemed to be a regular system of 
private assassination which the Free-State party had adopted towards 
their opponents. Under these circumstances, I am compelled to send 
into that country Captain Woods with his whole command, who is sta- 
tioned at Lawrence, leaving that place without any force. I have to 
ask you, therefore, to send me two more companies, with directions for 
them to camp at or near Lawrence until they receive further orders. 
" Yours, with great respect, 

" Wilson Shannon. 
" Colonel Sumner.'''' 

Major John Sedgwick writes to Colonel Sumner, June 



OFFICIAL TESTIMONY. 293 

I, 1856: "There are, undoubtedly, many outrages com- 
mitted daily ; some of them of the most atrocious character." 
Colonel P. St. George Cooke, in a letter to the Adjutant- 
General, dated June, 1856, said: "The disorders of the 
Territory have, in fact, changed their character, and consist 
now of robberies and assassinations, by a set of bandits 
whom the excitement of the times has attracted hither." 
Colonel Sumner writes : 

" Headquarters First Cavalry, 

" Fort Leavenworth, June 23, 1856. 
"Sir: I returned to this post last night. I have been busily en- 
gaged in dispersing armed bodies of both parties, and have been so 
fortunate as to do it without meeting resistance. 

" I have stationed five companies in two camps near Westport, to 
prevent any further inroads from that part of Missouri. 

" I do not think there is an armed party in the Territory, with the 
exception of a few freebooters, who may be together in small numbers. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" E. V. SUMXER, 
" Colonel First Cavalry, Cominanding. 
^' Assistant AdJHta7it-Gcneral, Department of the West, St. Louis, Mo.'''' 

" Headquarters First Cavalry, 

" Fort Leavenworth, June 23, 1856. 
" Colonel: I returned to this post last night. On the 14th instant 
I concentrated several companies at Palmyra, on the Santa F6 road, and 
moved down that road towards the Missouri line. I met two armed 
parties on their way into the Territory — one from Missouri and one 
from Alabama — but they both returned into Missouri. 

"I do not think there is an armed body of either party now in the 
Territory, with the exception, perhaps, of a few freebooters, who may 
be together in small numbers. These fellows belong to both parties, 
and are taking advantage of the political excitement to commit their own 
rascally acts. I have stationed five companies near the Missouri line, 
to indicate plainly to all that the orders of the President and the procla- 
mation of the Governor will be maintained. 

" I am, Colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" E. V. Sumner, 
" Colonel First Cavalry, Commanding. 
"Colonel S. Cooper, Adjutant-General.'^ 

" Executive Office, June 14, 1856. 
" Sir: I send you two copies of the proclamation — all I can find. 



294 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" The complaints of robberies on the roads near Westport are dis- 
tressing. 

' ■ I hope you will clear those roads and drive those people back at 
once. Yours, etc., 

" W. Shannon. 
" Colonel Sumner." 

While the war of murder and pillage thus inaugurated was 
being prosecuted by the revolutionists in a private manner, 
the larger bodies were becoming formidable. Pate's com- 
pany was encountered at Black Jack on the 2d of June by 
about thirty Free-State men, and, after exchanging shots 
several hours from the ravines and tall grass, Pate, seeing 
Captain Abbott with his company approaching to reinforce 
the Free-State men, surrendered. No serious harm was 
done. A skirmish was had at Franklin on the 4th of June, 
and Osawatomie was sacked by the pro-slavery forces. Of 
this attack, Gihon says : 

" On the 7th, Reid, with one hundred and seventy men, marched 
into Osawatomie, and, without resistance, entered each house, robbing 
it of everything of value. There were but few men in town, and the 
women and children were treated with the utmost brutality. Stores 
and dwellings were alike entered and pillaged. Trunks, boxes, and 
desks were broken open, and their contents appropriated or destroyed. 
Even rings were rudely pulled from the ears and fingers of the women, 
and some of the apparel from their persons. The liquor found was 
freely drunk, and served to incite the plunderers to increased violence 
in the prosecution of their mischievous work. Having completely 
stripped the town, they set fire to several houses, and then beat a rapid 
retreat, carrying off a number of horses, and loudly urging each other 
to greater haste, as 'the d — d abolitionists were coming!' There are 
hundreds of well-authenticated accounts of the cruelties practised by 
this horde of ruffians ; some of them too shocking and disgusting to 
relate, or to be accredited if told. The tears and shrieks of terrified 
women folded in their foul embrace failed to touch a chord of mercy 
in their brutal hearts ; and the mutilated bodies of murdered men hang- 
ing upon the trees, or left to rot upon the prairies or in the deep 
ravines, or furnish food for vultures and wild beasts, told frightful 
stories of brutal ferocity, from which the wildest savages might have 
shrunk with horror." 



COLONEL SUMNER'S REPORT. 295 

All these movements resulted from the massacre. Colonel 
Sumner, in accordance with the Governor's proclamation, 
took the field, and soon sent home the Missourians as well 
as the Free-State forces. John Brov/n subsided or left the 
country, and comparative quiet was restored. 

Colonel Sumner thus refers to his action in a letter to the 
Adjutant-General, U. S. A., under date of June 8, 1856 : 
" Headquarters First Cavalry, 

"Fort Leavenworth, June 8, 1856. 

" Colonel : I have just returned to this post to prepare the last two 
companies of my regiment to take the field. On the 5th instant, as 
soon as I received the inclosed proclamation, I moved from Lecompton 
with about fifty men to disperse a band of free-soilers who were en- 
camped near Prairie City ; this band had a fight with the pro-slavery 
party, and had taken twenty-six prisoners. As I approached them, 
tliey sent out to request me to halt, which of course was not done, and 
the leaders then came out to meet me as I was advancing. They yielded 
at once, and I ordered them to release all prisoners and to disperse 
immediately, which was complied with. While engaged in this camp 
in seeing my orders carried into effect, I received intelligence that two 
or three hundred of the pro-slavery party, from Missouri and elsewhere, 
were approaching, and I immediately turned my attention to them. I 
found them halted at two miles' distance (about two hundred and fifty 
strong), and, to my great surprise, I found Colonel Whitfield, the mem- 
ber of Congress, and General Coffey, of the militia, at their head. I 
said to these gentlemen that I was there by order of the President and 
the proclamation of the Governor to disperse all armed bodies assem- 
bled without authority ; and further, that my duty was perfectly plain, 
and would certainly be done. I then requested General Coffey to as- 
semble his people, and I read to them the President's dispatch and the 
Governor's proclamation. 

" The General then said that he should not resist the authority of 
the general Government, and that his party would disperse, and shortly 
afterwards they moved off. Whether this is a final dispersion of these 
lawless armed bodies is very doubtful." 

Colonel Sumner's efforts so far succeeded as to enable 
General Smith, who succeeded him in command, to write on 
July 26, 1856, as follows: "Colonel: Everything has been 
tranquil in the department since I assumed command. In 
the Territory of Kansas there have been no disturbances, but 



296 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

emigrants are coming in armed, as though they were pre- 
pared to begin again when an opportunity offers." 

Also, August I St he wrote: "Things remain apparently 
quiet in Kansas Territory, and I hear of no threatened hos- 
tihties from Indians." 

Governor Shannon and Colonel Sumner construed their 
instructions from headquarters to require the dispersion of 
the State Legislature, which was to meet on the 4th of July. 
This was done by Colonel Sumner in a manner to entitle 
him as a man and officer to the respect of the Free-State 
men, believing he was simply obeying orders from his superi- 
ors. But such was the detestation in which the act was held 
throughout the country, that the President and Secretary of 
War denied all responsibility for it, and left Sumner under a 
cloud of implied censure, which he resented in his corre- 
spondence. 

As this was to be an inexcusable interference with the 
rights of the people, even though by Federal authority, the 
Legislature would be justified before the world in making at 
least a show of resistance. Accordingly, the treason prison- 
ers sent this letter to the members of the Legislature : 

Camp near Lecompton, Kansas, July i, 1856. 
*^To the Friends of ' Law and Order, ^ convened at Topeka : 

" The undersigned desire to say a word to their friends in regard to 
the present aspect of affairs in Kansas. 

"It is highly important at this time that the oppressed people of 
Kansas should occupy a tenable position, one which the country and 
the world will sustain. There is, it seems to us, a position which we 
can occupy and be triumphant, whether overcome by numbers or not ; 
while there is another position, which, if taken, would prejudice our 
cause and might lead to defeat, and weaken the confidence and support 
of our friends in the country. 

"The first and true position is, defense of the State organization. 
You have a constitutional right to meet as a Legislature, complete the 
State organization, and pass all laws necessary to the successful admin- 
istration of justice, and the Federal Government has no authority to 
interfere with you in the exercise of this right ; should it do so, resist- 
ance becomes justifiable self-defense. 



LETTER OF TREASON PRISONERS. 



297 



" The second and untenable position is resistance to a Federal officer 
in the service of a legal process, when the defense of the State organiza- 
tion is not involved. Should a collision occur under such circumstances, 
it would be most unfortunate, and should be avoided if possible. If 
an attempt, however, is made to arrest the members of the State organ- 
ization merely because they are such, with a view to disable it, then 
resistance becomes defense of the State organization, and is manifestly 
justifiable. 

"Accordingly, all persons against whom indictments are known to 
be pending, for any other charge than that of being a member of the 
State organization, should not be found at the capital, as that might in- 
volve the people in their cases. We feel that our hope of success in 
this important crisis depends, first, upon a right position, and second, 
upon calm and unflinching firmness. 

" You have met for the purpose of doing what other new States 
have done, and what you have a constitutional right to do, and no man 
or class of men have a right to interfere, not excepting even the Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

" Our desire to be with you in this crowning emergency is almost 
irresistible, and nothing but the fear that your position might be changed 
from a defense of the State organization to a resistance to our re-arrest, 
can reconcile us to this absence. As it is, you have our earnest solici- 
tude and fervent prayers that all may go on well with you, and that you 
may earn, as you will if every step is judiciously and firmly taken, the 
gratitude of millions of your fellow-men and the approbation of the God 
of Justice and Humanity. 

" George W. Smith, 
" Charles Robinson, 
" Gaius Jenkins, 
" G. W. Deitzler, 
" Henry H. Williams, 
"John Brown, Jr." 

Colonel Sumner reported his action on that occasion to 
Washington, and the following endorsement was made upon 
his report : 

"The President's proclamation having been sent from this depart- 
ment to Colonel Sumner, as a part of his instructions, a general refer- 
ence to that paper is no compliance with the requirements of the letter 
addressed to him, dated July 21, 1856. If any portion of that procla- 
mation was understood as directing military officers to use the force 
under their command for the dispersion of an illegal legislative body, 
that part of the proclamation should have been specially cited. 



298 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



" If the ' serious consequences ' anticipated by the Colonel command- 
ing First Cavalry from the convention of the Free-State Legislature of 
Kansas had been realized, it might have been necessary for him to use 
the military force under his command to suppress resistance to the exe- 
cution of the laws, and he would have no difficulty in finding his author- 
ity, both in the President's proclamation and in the letter of instructions 
which accompanied it. But if the exigency was only anticipated, it is 
not perceived how authority is to be drawn from either, or both, to 
employ a military force to disperse men because they were 'elected and 
organized without law.' 

" The reference to the dissatisfaction of the Missourians seems to be 
wholly inappropriate to the subject under consideration, and the depart- 
ment is at a loss to understand why that reference is made ; the more 
so because, in answer to an inquiry from Colonel Sumner, he was dis- 
tinctly informed by letter of March, 1856, that the department expected 
him, in the discharge of his duty, to make no discrimination, founded 
on the section of the country from which persons might or had come. 
"Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War. 

" War Department, August 27, 1856." 

Thus it appears that, had there been a conflict, the action 
of Sumner would not have been sustained, and the victory 
would have been with the Free-State party. 

Colonel Sumner visited the prisoner's camp after this 
transaction, and complained that the Legislature compelled 
him to make a show of force, when Robinson told him the 
movement was violating a constitutional right of the people, 
and had he been at Topeka, he would have made it neces- 
sary for him to kill some one in doing so. Colonel Sumner 
replied that he would not have killed any one, but would 
have arrested them. Yet he had no writs for such arrest. 

As, after the shipment of the Free-State people from 
Leavenworth down the river, after the Potawatomie massa- 
cre, it became unsafe for immigrants from the North and East 
to travel that route, a way was opened through Iowa and 
Nebraska. During the summer large parties were raised all 
through the Northern States, more or less well armed and 
equipped for their own protection. .Wjib-some of these 
parties Lane and Brown appeared" on the hne of Nebraska. 



ARRIVAL OF LANE AND BROWN. 299 

But those in charge of the parties were unwilling to enter 
the Territory under their auspices, and went by themeslves. 
Professor Spring, in his " Kansas," page 169, says: 

"July 29th, Dr. S. G. Howe and Thaddeus Hyatt, representatives 
of the National Kansas Committee sent out to investigate matters, reached 
the Nebraska camp. They found many of the immigrants in forlorn 
condition — ragged, almost penniless, poorly supplied with even the 
scanty furniture of a camper's outfit. Leadership had fallen into Lane's 
hands, and the whole expedition became accredited to him, though he was 
neither directly nor indirectly concerned in raising more than a fourth 
part of it. The committee demanded that his connection with it should 
be completely severed on penalty of withholding further supplies. Con- 
siderations which led to this summary step were the fact that papers 
had been made out for Lane's arrest — a circumstance which might lead 
to complications ; that in an emergency his discretion and self-command 
could not be trusted. These considerations, the committee reported, 
'conspired to create a well-grounded apprehension in our minds that, by 
some hasty and ill-timed splurge, he would defeat the object of the ex- 
pedition if suffered to remain even in otherwise desirable proximity.' 
Lane took the decision much to heart. * * * But he sullenly 
yielded, set off towards the Territory with old John Brown, Captain 
Samuel Walker, and three or four others." 

Both of these men appeared at Topeka, August 10, 1856, 
and commenced operations. Lane had been absent since 
early in March, and, as Brown was usually in hiding, it was 
not definitely known when he left the Territory. As has 
been seen by the dispatches of General Smith, quiet had 
been partially restored since the Potawatomie killing, and 
this, of all things, was what Brown, and perhaps Lane, 
would most dislike. But if they had had their way this 
quiet would soon have been exchanged for general war 
against the Federal Government. John Brown sent word 
from his hiding-place, near Topeka, to his son, John, Jr., 
with the treason prisoners, proposing a rescue from the sol- 
diers who had him in charge. 

Redpath, in his " Life of Brown," page 142, says : " Slowly 
coming to the Territory, with a little army, but a mightier 
influence of inspiring rude men with fiu-ious passions, was 



30O 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



General 'Jim Lane'; while in the woods, near the town 
[Topeka], lay John Brown encamped, who did not despair, 
but was ready to release the prisoners at Lecompton, or 
attack the dragoons, if the party would advise it. They did 
not; and he left the town." 

Lane sent this letter, written with his own hand, to the 
treason prisoners : 

"Topeka, August lo, 1856. 
"Dear Friends: I am here at last with a sufficient force and 
ready to rescue you. 

" It were better if you can escape to do so, and let me meet you with 
my defending force just outside of your prison-house. 

"It is necessary for me to remind you that time is all-important — 
my whereabouts cannot long be concealed from the bloodhounds who 
are seeking my blood. Act promptly ; if you cannot escape, I can and 
will attack your guard, although it were better policy, if blood is to flow, 
that it be shed in your defense rather than in your rescue ; decide, and 
that quickly. Time is everything. 

" Yours, etc., 

"J. H. Lane. 
"To His Excellency C. Robinson, Governor State of Kansas ; George 
IV. Smith, Councillor ; General George IV. Deitzler, George W. 
Broion, Esq., Hon. John Brown, and others, Free-State prisoners 
at Lecompton." 

The Attorney-General of Ohio wrote to Eli Thayer, from 
Columbus, May 30, 1856, and said: 

" I have had a long personal interview with him [Lane]. * * * 
I might add that the great inducement for Lane's immediate return, and 
which has induced him to do so, is to save Governor Robinson. He 
thinks he has only one hope — a rescue." 

" Truly your obedient servant, 

" F. D. Kimball, 
" Attorney-General of Ohio." 

Lane came into the Territory disguised as " Captain Joe 
Cook." He always magnified his importance in the estima- 
tion of the pro-slavery men, and always would make it 
appear that they were after his "heart's blood." It is true, 
some Administration men regarded Lane as a disturber and 



LANE'S DISGUISE. 3OI 

mischievous character, yet the ultra men did not want him 
arrested or disturbed in his career. His disguise, of course, 
was the merest sham, as his identity was always known, and 
he could have been arrested at any time by a single orderly of 
Colonel Sumner or any other United States officer. The 
same also was true with reference to John Brown, although 
Redpath, and perhaps others, claim that no man dared 
arrest him. These men depended upon the Free-State party 
for their protection, if in danger, and that party could not 
be brought in conflict with Federal authority on account of a 
regiment of Browns, Lanes, or any other such characters. In 
fact, it is notorious, that a large number of the leading Free- 
State men, those who devised the policy of the party, re- 
garded the cause as much safer in their absence than when 
they were present. 



CHAPTER XIL 

FREE-STATE AND PRO-SLAVERY FORCES. ARRIVAL OF GOV- 
ERNOR GEARY. END OF THE WAR. THE PARTS PLAYED 

BY BROWN AND LANE. 

Several questions will arise for the future historian re- 
garding the motives that led Brown and Lane to propose a 
rescue of the treason prisoners from the custody of the offi- 
cers of the United States army. The arrest of Deitzler, 
Brown, Smith, Jenkins, and Robinson, on a charge of 
treason, and their confinement with the officers in whose 
hands was placed largely the responsibihty for the peace of 
the Territory, was the best investment for the Free-State 
cause, and the worst for its opponents, that was made dur- 
ing that season, excepting only the destruction of the hotel 
and printing offices by bogus officers. During most of the 
season, the prisoners were in immediate charge of Captain 
Sackett, under Major Sedgwick and Colonel Sumner, all 
Free-State men and in full sympathy with the prisoners and 
their cause. The prisoners were in daily, and sometimes in 
hourly, communication with the Free-State men outside, and 
with the Captain in charge at all hours. Thus the United 
States officers knew with absolute certainty how far the 
Free-State men would go, and were in no fear of being com- 
promised by them. They were also kept informed in regard 
to every movement of the two parties, including the terri- 
torial officers, bogus or otherwise. The Governor and his 
party became aware of all this, and tried hard to cut off 
communication between the prisoners and their friends out- 



OBJECT OF LANE AND BROWN. 303 

side. Failing in this, word was sent to General Smith to 
have them removed to Fort Leavenworth. Even this was 
declined. In Mrs. Robinson's "Kansas," page 319, these 
efforts are referred to as follows : 

" On the 20th [of July] Cramer, the deputy marshal, came to camp, 
and ordered Captain Sackett not to allow any person to converse with 
the prisoners privately. ' His responsibility, since the sacking of Law- 
rence, in regard to the prisoners, had weighed upon him much.' But 
Captain Sackett at once informed him, ' he need give himself no further 
trouble on the subject, as the responsibility of their safe-keeping rested 
upon him.' The little fellow appeared pleased; but his wrath was only 
pent up. He met a man soon after leaving camp, and poured it forth 
in execrations upon the Captain, declaring that ' Robinson was more the 
Governor of the Territory than Shannon ' ; that ' the prisoners should 
be taken from Captain Sackett's charge, and that their lives would not 
be safe an hour.' On the 21st the little deputy came again, with a letter 
from Governor Shannon, in which he advised that ' persons and letters 
be not allowed to go into camp ; that the Territory had never been in so 
bad a condition ; that he believed the prisoners were implicated in these 
disturbances, and in great measure the occasion of them.' Cramer, at 
the Captain's tent, also said, 'The Governor don't know what to do.' 
He talked so loudly it was quite impossible not to hear what was said. 
It will be remembered that only two days had passed since the Governor 
had been informed that, if such outrages as that of Titus continued, the 
people would try to suppress them. Word was returned to the Gov- 
ernor from Captain Sackett, that ' he had his orders from Colonel Sum- 
ner to give up the prisoners to the civil authorities if unnecessary restric- 
tions were placed upon them.' Governor Shannon immediately sent to 
Captain Sackett that ' he did not know he had orders from Colonel 
Sumner, but, if he had, of course he must obey them.' He swore, 
however, ' he would see if he could not make Captain Sackett obey 
orders,' and sent an express to General Smith at the fort. General 
Smith proposed not to interfere in matters in the Territory, and, no 
change being made in the treatment of the prisoners, the Governor was 
disappointed, and unable to carry out his threats. On the 19th he was 
heard to say, as at many other times, ' that Governor Robinson would 
be hung.' " 

Not only did the confinement of these men help the cause 
in Kansas, but it had a most beneficial effect throughout the 
country. Here were five meA charged with a " constructive " 
crime, held in confinement on the prairie, poiuring "hot 



304 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



shot " in the shape of letters to the press of the country, 
dated at " Treason Camp," which did more to damage the 
Administration politically than these men could have done 
at liberty in any capacity. 

Then why did Lane and Brown propose the rescue f 
In Brown's case the answer is easy, as Redpath's biog- 
raphy, his own confessions, and his later course in Virginia 
show that a desire for revolution and civil war actuated him. 
Did it also actuate Lane ? Brown and Lane agreed in a 
policy that would have produced this result at the Waka- 
rusa war the fall before ; and were they acting in concert 
and by previous agreement now? Or, did Lane beheve 
such a course would be the overthrow of the Free-State 
cause and the establishment of a slave State in Kansas, 
which he had preferred? According to official report of 
army officers, he was seen in friendly communion with Gen- 
eral Richardson, of the territorial militia, when the bogus 
officials were pretending to want him arrested. Was he in 
collusion with the enemy to betray and ruin the Free-State 
cause ? He was well aware that the treason prisoners be- 
lieved him to be totally without convictions or principles of 
any kind, cowardly and treacherous. Did he desire their 
destruction by the army, which certainly would have shot 
them down like dogs had a rescue been attempted ? Jen- 
kins, one of these prisoners, whose claim he had jumped, he 
afterward killed with his own hands in a most cold-blooded 
and cowardly manner. These questions will not be answered 
by the writer, for it is too early. The future historian, how- 
ever, will consider them. 

Notwithstanding armed bodies of men had disappeared 
under the active operations of Colonel Sumner, to such an 
extent that General Smith could say all was peace and quiet 
on the surface, there was no time during the summer that 
Brown's disciples, such as Whipple, or Stevens and Cook, 
both of whom lost their lives at Harper's Ferry, Leonhardt 
and others, were not more or less active in the "reprisal" 



GUERRILLA PARTIES. 305 

business. Professor Spring, in his " Kansas," says ; " So 
great was the enterprise and success in what one of the 
victims called ' the roguing business,' that few pro-slavery 
men of the neighborhood [Topeka] escaped. Free-State 
depredators, in larger or smaller gangs, scoured the region, 
filling the air with profanity, intimidating pro-slavery settlers, 
shooting at those who were not sufficiently docile, and plun- 
dering right and left." While the Free-State men were thus 
active, the pro-slavery men were by no means idle. Their 
thefts and robberies, if they did not equal those of the Free- 
State men, were not far behind. As no forces were permit- 
ted by the vigilance of Colonel Sumner to take the field, 
both parties estabhshed places of rendezvous, from which 
they could emerge, accomplish their work, and return. The 
bases of operations for the Free-State men were the larger 
settlements, like Topeka, Lawrence, and Osawatomie, while 
the pro-slavery men, having but few towns of importance, 
resorted to log cabins and camps on creeks and other favor- 
able places. Several of these camps were established during 
the summer. One was in southern Kansas, near Osawato- 
mie, one at Franklin, one at Fort Saunders, and one at 
Titus's house, near Lecompton. 

When the depredations from these nests of thieves and 
plunderers became intolerable, it was decided to break them 
up. As John Brown had left southern Kansas for Ne- 
braska, Captain Cracklin, with a company from Lawrence, 
went for the fort near Osawatomie and frightened the occu- 
pants away. This was about the 8th of August. Fort 
Saunders, on Washington Creek, had become quite trouble- 
some to the neighbors, and after repeated appeals to the 
authorities for protection, the people took the matter in hand. 
A staunch Free-State man. Major Hoyt, visited the camp, 
and was riddled with bullets. Before attacking them, how- 
ever, it was decided to break up the nest at Franklin, where 
the enemy had a cannon, a^ well as other war supplies. 
Accordingly, on the night of the 13th of August, after a 
20 



306 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

fight in the dark for several hours, a load of hay was set on 
fire and started for the fort or block-house. This brought a 
cry for quarter and the desertion of the place by its defend- 
ers. The cannon and other stores were captured. As no 
ammunition was found for the cannon, one day was occu- 
pied by Captain Bickerton in making moulds and casting 
balls from what was left of the type of the Herald of F?'ee- 
dom o&ce. On the 15th, the attack was made upon Fort 
Saunders, on Washington Creek, where Hoyt had been mur- 
dered. As this was Lane's first appearance as commander 
in a battle, some particulars of it are given, as furnished by 
his friend John Speer, in the Lawrence Tribune, July 20, 
1876: 

" He [Lane] ordered out all his forces of cavalry. Then he gathered 
in all the farmers' wagons ; and placing boards across them like seats, 
made holes in these boards, into which he stuck pegs, and around these 
pegs he tied bundles of straw so as to make them at a distance look like 
men. Thus prepared, the whole force of live and straw men made their 
appearance upon the heights in sight of Fort Saunders. As the view of 
them was an oblique one from the Fort, the teams were spread out a 
good distance apart, but still looked as if they were close together. As 
they emerged from the woods, they seemed to keep coming as if there 
was no end to them. The ruse had its effect, and before a gun was 
fired the men were seen fleeing in all directions." 

After this battle, Lane left the army with a body-guard of 
half a dozen men, going by way of Topeka. He crossed 
the Kansas River in the night, for Nebraska, where his 
friends say he at once commenced throwing up breastworks 
on or near the territorial line. These details of the work 
of Brown and Lane are only important because Higginson, 
the historian, and Sanborn, the biographical writer, say that 
it was their military prowess that saved Kansas to freedom, 
and all readers will be interested in their exploits. After the 
commander. Lane, had started for Nebraska, the army at 
first disbanded. However, learning that Colonel Titus was 
active in his expeditions of plunder, and that his wife and 
family had just left for Missouri, the men were rallied again. 



CAPTURE OF FORT TITUS. 307 

and under Colonel Walker started for Fort Titus, within sight 
and hearing of the United States camp, where were guarded 
the treason prisoners. This was a most daring enterprise, 
and most skillfully managed. Lane's "straw" men were 
left behind, and solid men and solid shot soon told the story. 
The men did not escape as at Fort Saunders, but were taken 
prisoners to Lawrence. Captain Shombre, a brave Free- 
State man from Indiana, was killed, and two pro-slavery 
men. As soon as the iiring commenced, one ball whizzing 
past the United States camp, boots and saddles was sounded, 
but the soldiers leisurely took their position between Titus's 
house and Lecompton, apparently well pleased to witness 
the little battle that was being fought. The next day Gov- 
ernor Shannon, Major Sedgwick, and Dr. Rodrigue went 
to Lawrence, met with Colonel James Blood and William 
Hutchinson, committee, and made a treaty and exchanged 
prisoners. Also the howitzer, taken by Jones from Law- 
rence on May 21st, was returned. Here ended another 
chapter in the guerrilla warfare inaugurated by John Bro\\-n 
on the 24th of May. Thus far the Free-State men, in this 
brief campaign, had triumphed, but their victory was to be 
short-lived. Governor Shannon, who would under no prov- 
ocation call out the territorial militia, resigned and aban- 
doned the Territory, leaving Secretary Woodson acting 
Governor. This was glory enough for the Slave-State men. 
Now the machinery for invasion, devastation, and annihila- 
tion was put in order. Even Jeff Davis was ready to come 
to the rescue of his friends. 

At this point it may be appropriate to give a specimen of 
the way in which the history of Kansas has been written, 
which will serve to show how heroes are made — and un- 
made. General James Blood, who came to Kansas in July, 
1854, has been a prominent character ever since, and has 
filled various positions of responsibihty. His attention being 
called to some historical writing by Mr. Sanborn and Owen 
Brown, he made this answer : 



308 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

"WAS JOHN BROWN A FRAUD? 

" To the Editor of the Transcript: 

"My attention has been called to a letter signed F. B. Sanborn, 
dated Concord, July 12, 1884, and published in the Boston Evening 
Tr-anscript of July, 1884. 

" Some of the statements in Mr. Sanborn's letter in regard to what 
transpired here in Kansas in the summer of 1856 are so new to me that 
they are really quite interesting. To illustrate, I quote as follows : 

" That Brown's brave fighting record in Kansas, during the summer 
of 1856, was the glory of the friends of freedom all over the North, and 
that when difficult or dangerous work in Kansas was proposed. Brown 
was called for by the Kansas people to take part in it. Thus, on the 
I2th of August, 1856, General Lane, who had returned to Kansas from 
the North with several hundred armed Free-State men, but was passing 
under the name of ' Joe Cook,' sent this message through his aid, Mr. 
Stratton, to John Brown : 

" ' ToPEKA, 7 p.m., August 12, 1856. 

" ' General Joe Cook wants you to come to Lawrence this night, for 
we expect to have a fight on Washington Creek. Come to Topeka as 
soon as possible, and I will pilot you to the place. 

" ' Yours in haste, H. Stratton.' 

"This fight actually took place August iSth, and Brown had the 
credit of the victory with the Georgians and Missourians who were 
beaten. The next day Captain Samuel Walker, a friend of Brown's, 
* * * made an attack on ' Fort Titus,' a pro-slavery block-house, not far 
from Lecompton, and was also successful; so that on the 17th of Au- 
gust, Shannon, the pro-slavery Governor of Kansas, went to Lawrence 
and made a ' treaty of peace ' very favorable to the Free-State men. 
These matters and some others, throwing light on the condition of 
Kansas then, are thus related in a letter from Owen Brown (a son of 
John), who was then recovering from illness in Iowa, to the wife of 
John Brown, among the Adirondack Mountains. 

"'OWEN BROWN'S COMMENTARIES ON THE KANSAS 
WAR. 

" ' Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, August 27, 1856. 
"'Dear Mother: The last news we had from Kansas, father 
was at Lawrence, and had charge of a company of the bravest men the 
Territory could afford. Those who come through here from the Terri- 
tory say that father is one of the most daring, courageous men in Kan- 
sas. You have, no doubt, heard that the Free-State men have taken 
two forts or block-houses, with a fine lot of arms, several prisoners, and 



SAMPLES OF HISTORY WRITING. 309 

two cannon. Shannon was obliged to flee for his life; afterwards came 
to Lane to negotiate for peace. He proposed that the Free-State men 
should give up the prisoners and arms they had taken ; at the same time 
they (the enemy) should still hold our men as prisoners and keep all 
the arms they had taken from the Free-State men. But Lane would 
not consent to that ; he required Shannon to deliver up the howitzer 
they had taken at Lawrence, release some prisoners, disarm the pro- 
slavery men in the Territory, and do all in his power to remove the 
enemy from the Territory. With fear and trembling Shannon con- 
sented to all of Lane's demands. * * * And now the news comes from 
reliable sources that Lane is about to enter Leavenworth with two 
thousand men ; that he has sent word to the citizens of Leavenworth 
requiring them to deliver up a few prisoners they had taken, with some 
wagons and other property, or he will destroy the town forthwith. 
Colonel Smith, of Leavenworth, commander of the Government troops, 
refuses to protect the pro-slavery men of the Territory, replying that 
Lane is able to dress them all out, troops and all. Shannon made a 
speech to them, urging them to cease hostilities, that he could not defend 
them {i.e., our enemies). At present our enemies and the Missourians 
are trembling in their boots, if reports are true. * * * For the want 
of time I leave out many particulars in connection with the taking of 
those forts which would be quite interesting, and show Yankee skill and 
strategy at least.' 

" This letter of Owen Brown to his mother in the Adirondack 
Mountains is truly romantic. Then follows a letter from John Brown 
to his wife, dated ' Lawrence, K. T., 7th September, 1856,' giving a 
fictitious account of what took place at Osawatomie on the 30th of 
August. Following these letters the truth-seeking Sanborn indulges in 
a little flowery rhetoric and gushing sentiment. I will make no more 
quotations from Mr. Sanborn's article at this time. But believing it to 
be a duty, I have reluctantly concluded to call attention to some of the 
errors contained in the above quotations. A large convention of the 
settlers in Kansas was held at Topeka on the 4th of July, 1856, at 
which a large territorial committee was elected, to look after and take 
charge of the interests of the settlers, as Governor Robinson was a 
prisoner under guard of United States soldiers, and the Legislature was 
that day broken up and dispersed by Federal troops. The committee 
immediately organized, and appointed a sub-committee of five, who were 
charged with the duty of looking after and taking immediate charge of 
all public aff'airs and interests of the people of the Territory, and to 
provide for their protection from armed bands of guerrillas and ruffians. 
Mr. William Hutchinson and myself, then residing in Lawrence, were 
appointed members of the sub-committee. Lawrence was made head- 
quarters, and the business of the committee was transacted here. As 



310 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



Mr. Hutchinson and myself were the only members of the territorial 
committee residing here, most of the work devolved upon us ; conse- 
quently it became our duty to be informed in regard to what was taking 
place. I make the above statement that you may judge of my oppor- 
tunities for obtaining or possessing correct information or knowledge of 
what transpired here at the time, as well as of the principal actors and 
their part in affairs. In regard to the first statement quoted from Mr. 
Sanborn's article, I wish to say that Mr. Sanborn is mistaken. John 
Brown had no such record here. The second statement is utterly with- 
out foundation in truth. John Brown was never called upon by the 
Kansas people to take part in any difficult or dangerous work. Perhaps 
the best way to correct or refute the statements contained in the quota- 
tions from Mr. Sanborn's article would be to make a correct statement 
of what did take place here at the time. In August, 1856, we found 
that armed bands of ruffians were stationed at Frankhn, a few miles 
east of Lawrence, on the road to Kansas City, and that they engaged 
m robbing travellers and freighters, and pillaging settlers in the neigh- 
borhood. Another band was at what was called Fort Saunders, on 
Washington Creek, near the old Santa Fe road, and about fifteen miles 
southwest of here. At this place a number of robberies and murders 
had been committed. Major Hoyt had been murdered here. Another 
band was about twelve miles northwest of here, and near Lecompton, 
called Fort Titus. As the United States authorities were doing nothing 
for our protection, we determined to protect ourselves. We had been 
for some time preparing to attack them, and try to drive them out of the 
country or stop their depredations, and had decided to attack the camp 
at Franklin on Wednesday, the 13th of August. The attack was not 
made till evening, when considerable of a fight took place. On the 
morning of that day I was informed by Mr. Hutchinson that Lane had 
]ust come in from Iowa, and was in concealment over his store, and had 
assumed the name of Captain Joe Cook. At his request I went up and 
saw Lane. I said to him that, in my opinion, there was no necessity 
for his hiding, that he was in no more danger than the rest of us. In 
the evening, when the ' Stubbs ' Company and others had started for 
Franklin, Lane came down from his hiding-place and mounted a horse, 
and in company with several gentlemen rode down to a point between 
Lawrence and Franklin, where they remained upon their horses, taking 
no part until the fight was over. After killing one of our men and 
seriously wounding several others, the band of ruffians in the block- 
house surrendered. They were disarmed and ordered or allowed to 
leave the country on their promise never to return. Among other arms 
captured was a brass cannon. Immediately after the affair at Franklin 
was over, our men started for Fort Saunders, and went into camp on 
Rock Creek, a short distance east of Bloomington. The cannon taken 



GENERAL BLOOD'S STATEMENT. 31I 

at Franklin was brought to Lawrence, as there was no ammunition for 
it. The next morning (the 14th) I went with Captain Bickerton and a 
few others to the Herald of Frcedo77i office, and took a quantity of type 
to a blacksmith shop, where Captain Bickerton spent the day in casting 
balls from the type, while another force was occupied in making car- 
tridges. By night we had quite a supply of ammunition prepared for 
the cannon, which we loaded into a wagon with the gun, and loading 
one or two more wagons with provisions and ammunition for the men 
in camp on Rock Creek, we started with a small guard that we were 
able to collect, arriving at the camp some time in the night, when a 
consultation was held with the officers, at which General Lane was 
present, and it was decided to march upon Fort Saunders the next 
morning. John Brown was not present — at least I did not see or hear 
of him. The next day (the iSth) our men went over to Fort Saunders, 
but upon their arrival there they found the place deserted, not a man, 
woman, or child to be found. Dinner had been cooked, but was left 
upon the table untouched. Yet Sanborn states positively ' that a fight 
actually took place at Fort Saunders, August 15th, and that Brown had 
the credit of the victory with the Georgians and Missourians, who were 
beaten.' However, it is certain that there was no fight that day, and 
that John Brown was not there. Our men returned that night to the 
camp on Rock Creek. Lane, with H. Stratton and a few others as 
aids or body-guard, left for Nebraska, crossing the ferry at Topeka 
about midnight. The next heard of them here was about a week after- 
wards, when they were found to be engaged in the ludicrous employ- 
ment of throwing up breastworks near the Nebraska line. Saturday 
morning (the 16th) the attack was made upon Fort Titus under com- 
mand of Colonel Walker. Captain Bickerton placed the cannon taken at 
Franklin in range of the block-house and opened fire, sending the balls 
made from the Herald of Freedom type into it. At this fight Captain 
Shombre, who had recently arrived from Indiana and was in command 
of a company, was killed. After Titus had been seriously wounded, 
as well as some of his men, he surrendered. The buildings were burned, 
and the prisoners were brought here and placed under a strong guard. 
Sunday morning, the 17th, Governor Shannon, accompanied by Major 
Sedgwick, came down from Lecompton and sent for the committee. As 
Mr. Hutchinson and myself were the only members of the committee 
here, we went to the Cincinnati House, where they were stopping. 
The Governor commenced negotiations for the release of Titus and his 
men. The most of the day was spent in discussing various propositions 
for a settlement. The terms finally agreed upon were about as follows, 
to wit : That we should keep the arms taken at Titus and at Franklin, in- 
cluding the cannon ; that the howitzer taken from here at the sacking of 
Lawrence by the United States Marshal's posse in May should be de- 



312 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

llvered to us here in good condition ; that some five to eight prisoners 
arrested a day or two before by the United States Marshal, charged 
with being concerned in the attack upon FrankKn, with robbing the 
post-office at FrankHn, and other crimes against the United States Gov- 
ernment, should be unconditionally released and delivered to us here 
unharmed, and that he should issue a proclamation disbanding the so- 
called territorial militia, and order all bands of armed men to disperse, 
and for all such bands of non-residents to leave the Territory, and do all 
in his power as Governor to protect the settlers and restore peace. 
That then we would release Titus and his men. After we had agreed 
upon the terms of settlement with Governor Shannon and Major Sedg- 
wick, we sent for Colonel Walker and stated to him the terms of the 
agreement, and as we were obliged to keep a strong guard over the 
prisoners to prevent their being mobbed by some of our own men, we 
were glad to get rid of them. Colonel Walker approved of what we 
had done, and only asked to go up with his company and get the how- 
itzer and bring it into town. Monday morning (the i8th) the howitzer 
was brought down here, and the prisoners were brought in a Govern- 
ment ambulance. The ambulances were then driven to the guard-house, 
and Titus and his gang were put into them and escorted out of town. 
The terms of the agreement were carried out by Governor Shannon, as 
far as it was in his power to do. But he was very soon compelled to 
leave the Territory, and was at once removed, and Geary appointed in 
his place. 

" In the foregoing I have endeavored to truthfully narrate what oc- 
curred here during those few eventful days in August, 1856. Important 
occurrences may not have come to my knowledge, or may have escaped 
my memory. I am sure that I have not been actuated by malice or ill- 
will towards any one, living or dead. I have submitted this to Colonel 
Walker, who says that, as far as he knows, or can recollect, it is correct. 
He says he does not remember seeing John Brown during that time 
until Sunday, the 17th, when he saw him here denouncing the leaders 
of the Free-State party and their policy, and denouncing the committee 
for making terms with Governor Shannon, and trying to incite a mob 
to overpower the guards and kill the prisoners. Brown was not in 
charge of any company here. 

" But, according to Mr. Sanborn's story, John Brown was here mak- 
ing a record that was the glory of the friends of freedom all over the 
North, to the end that General Lane was able to make a treaty of peace 
very favorable to the Free-State men, while in fact Lane was not in the 
Territory at the time, having left two days previous for Nebraska, as 
before stated. 

" In regard to the letter of Owen Brown to the wife of John Brown, 
among the Adirondack Mountains, regard for the truth requires me to 



SLAVE-STATE MEN AROUSED. 313 

say it is pure fiction from beginning to end, entirely destitute of any 
shadow of truth. I deny each and every allegation contained therein. 
Mr. Owen Brown drew upon his imagination, or was badly informed. 
John Brown never had the confidence of the Free-State party here in 
Kansas, and never was intrusted with any command. They feared that 
his want of discretion would involve the Free-State people in trouble, 
embarrassment, and disgrace, and endanger the cause. I have written 
the above, believing the time has come when it is best to ' tell the truth.' 
" Respectfully, J. Blood. 

" Lav^rence, Kansas, December 18, 1884." 

" I have examined the accompanying statement made by J. Blood, in 
regard to what occurred here in August, 1856, from the 13th to the 
1 8th, and believe it to be correct as far as I know or can now remem- 
ber. " Samuel Walker. 

" Lawrence, Kansas, December 19, 1884." 

After the capture of Titus all pro-slavery parties took 
fright. Governor Shannon, on the 1 7th of August, sent this 
dispatch to General Smith : 

"Executive Office, Lecompton, K. T., 

" August 17, 1856. 

" Sir : This place is m a most dangerous and critical situation at this 
moment. We are threatened with utter extermination by a large body 
of Free-State men. 

'■ The report of Major Sedgwick, which will accompany this, will 
give you the particulars of the various outrages which this body of armed 
men have perpetrated within the last few days. I have just returned 
from Lawrence, where I have been this day, with the view of procuring 
the release of nineteen prisoners that were taken. I saw in that place 
at least eight hundred men, who manifested a fixed purpose to demolish 
this town. I know that they intend an attack, and that, too, in a very 
short time. I have correct information that they have five hundred 
men over in the Osawatomie country, some forty miles south ; about 
three hundred in the valley of the Wakarusa, and a large body above 
this place, variously estimated at from three to six hundred. There can 
concentrate at this place, in a very short time, some fifteen hundred or 
two thousand men, well armed, with several pieces of artillery. It 
would seem that the business of ' wiping out,' as it is called, of the pro- 
slavery party has been commenced. This heavy force has most unex- 
pectedly sprung into existence, and made its appearance within a few 
days past. The women and children have been mostly sent across the 
river, and there is a general panic among the people. The force here 



314 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

is small — say eighty or a hundred dragoons, and some hundred and 
twenty citizens poorly armed, and badly supplied with ammunition. 
Under these circumstances, I have to request you to send from the fort 
all disposable force. A few companies of infantry would be very desir- 
able, and some light artillery. Permit me to express the hope that 
whatever force you can dispatch to the relief of this place will be sent 
as soon as possible. Delay may be ruinous. 

" Yours, with great respect, Wilson Shanxox. 

"General P. F. Smith." 

The next day, the i8th, General Richardson, in command 
of the northern division of the territorial militia, wrote 
General Smith as follows : 

" Headquarters First Division Kansas Militia, 
" Doniphan County, Kansas, August i8th. 
" Sir: In addition to the extra herewith inclosed, I have received 
reliable information that a state of actual war exists in Douglas County, 
and that in other parts of the Territory within this division, robberies 
and other flagrant violations of law are daily occurring by armed bodies 
of men from the Northern States. In the absence of all information 
from the Governor of the Territory, I have taken the liberty of exercis- 
ing the authority in me vested in cases of invasion, by ordering out the 
entire strength of my division, to rendezvous at various points of the 
division to receive further orders. 

" The object of this is to ask of you, as commandant of this district, 
how far your orders require interference with the militia of the" Terri- 
tory, and whether or not their being thus assembled to repel such in- 
vasions is in violation of your instructions. 

" I anj, sir, your most obedient servant, 

" William P. Richardson, 
" Major-General First Division Kansas Militia. 
*' Brigadier-GeJieral Persifer F. Smith, Commanding, Leavenworth, 
K. T." 

On the 25th of August, Acting Governor Woodson issued 
this proclamation : 

" Whereas, satisfactory evidence exists that the Territory of Kansas 
is infested with large bodies of armed men, many of whom have just 
arrived from the States, combined and confederated together, and amply 
supplied with all the munitions of war, under the direction of a common 
head, with a thorough military organization ; who have been and are 
still engaged in murdering the law-abiding citizens of the Territory, 



PROCLAMATION OF GOVERNOR WOODSON. 315 

driving others from their homes and compeUing them to flee to the 
States for protection, capturing and holding others as prisoners of war, 
plundering them of their property, and in some instances burning down 
their houses, and robbing United States post-offices and the local militia 
of the arms furnished them by the Government, in open defiance and 
contempt of the laws of the Territory and of the Constitution and laws 
of the United States, and of the civil and military authority thereof ; all 
for the purpose of subverting by force and violence the government 
established by law of Congress in the Territory : 

" Now, therefore, I, Daniel Woodson, Acting Governor of the Terri- 
tory of Kansas, do hereby issue my proclamation, declaring the said 
Territory to be in a state of open insurrection and rebellion ; and I do 
hereby call upon all law-abiding citizens of the Territory to rally to the 
support of their country and its laws, and require and command all offi- 
cers, civil and military, and all other citizens of the Territory, to aid and 
assist by all means in their power in putting down the insurrectionists, 
and bringing to condign punishment all persons engaged with them, to 
the end of assuring immunity from violence and full protection to the 
persons, property, and civil rights to all peaceable and law-abiding in- 
habitants of the Territory. 

" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to 
be attached the seal of the Territory of Kansas. Done at the city of 
Lecompton, this 25th day of August, in the year of our Lord eighteen 
hundred and fifty-six, and of the independence of the United States, 
the eightieth. 

[L.S.] " Daniel WooDsox, 

" Acting Governor Kansas Territory." 

On the 1 8th of August the Ari^ns, of Platte City, Missouri, 
issued an extra with these head-lines : 

" Important from Kansas. — Civil War and Rebel- 
lion. — Women and Children Flying from their 
Homes for their Lives ! " 

After a greatly exaggerated description of disturbances in 
Kansas, it closes as follows : 

" Above, fellow-citizens, we have given you the facts, as far as we 
have learned them, of this recent unprovoked, inhuman, and unparal- 
leled attack upon the peaceable citizens of Kansas Territory by a band 
of as arrant traitors as ever cursed the soil of any country ; an attack 
premeditated and planned in the North to destroy your rights, or to 
dissolve the Union. Even now, while we write, our beloved Union, 



3l6 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

purchased by the blood of our ancestors, may be no more. Missouri- 
ans ! the war rages upon your borders — at your very thresholds ! Your 
brethren and friends in Kansas are this day being butchered and driven 
from their homes, and they now call upon you for succor and protection. 
The Constitution of your country, and the laws under which you have 
so long lived, as well as your own rights, menaced by as reckless and 
abandoned a foe as ever erected its bloody crest to disturb the repose of 
society, demand that you should rise up as one man and put an instant 
and efTectual quietus to the hired tools of abolition, disunion, and ag- 
gression, now roaming rampant over the plains of Kansas with firebrand 
and sabre. 

" Citizens of Platte County! the war is upon you, at your very 
doors. Arouse yourselves to speedy vengeance, and rub out the bloody 
traitors. Recollect that, although this unholy and unnatural war is car- 
ried on in Kansas, it is against you and your institutions. By a prompt 
and vigorous action you may put it down and save the Union ; but if 
you lay supinely on your backs and allow the black treason to get a firm 
hold in Kansas, you will find, when it is too late, that you have allowed 
the golden moments to pass, and a long and bloody war, involving all 
the States of the Union, will be inaugurated ; and then you will have 
to fight, not for your rights, but for your very existence ; not for the 
Union and Constitution — for they will have been destroyed in the onset 
— but for some sort of an existence among the nations, either as slaves 
or abject dependents of some power, perhaps, of Europe. While you 
are inert, the powers of the Union, North and South, will be slowly 
mustering for the mighty conflict that is to follow ; and all Europe will 
look on with satisfaction at the termination of this Republic and the end 
of Liberty. Rouse up, then, and strangle the demon of disunion and 
destruction. Patriotism and the love of country, law, and liberty, de- 
mand it at your hands. 

" Still later. — A dispatch, extra, just received this morning from In- 
dependence, signed A. G. Boone and others, corroborates the above 
statements. 

" Lecompton is burned down." 

General Smith responded to Governor Shannon's request, 
and prepared to send all his available force into the field, 
but he wanted to be rid of his treason prisoners as badly as 
Lane and Brown wanted to reUeve him of their custody. 
He wrote Shannon, on the i8th of August: "It will be 
necessary that you should make some arrangement for the 
custody of the prisoners that will take them out of the hands 



JEFFERSON DAVIS CALLS FOR MILITIA. 317 

of the troops. A small guard cannot be left with them 
safely ; a large one cannot be spared, and they cannot be 
marched with the troops, whose movements they will retard 
and embarrass." 

To this Acting Governor Woodson replied, August 26th, 
as follows: 

" Lecompton, Kansas Territory, 

" Executive Office, August 26th. 
" Sir : In reply to your letter to Governor Shannon, requesting him 
to make some provision for keeping the prisoners now in charge of the 
army near this place, I have to say that those prisoners are in the cus- 
tody of the United States Marshal for the Territory, Colonel I. B. 
Donelson, and that the Executive has no power to interfere with his 
duties. 

" Colonel Donelson is, I understand, at Leavenworth City at this 
time. 

" Very respectfully yours, 

" Daniel Woodson, 
"Acting Governor Kansas Territory. 
*' Brigadier-General Smith, Commanding Anny of the West.'" 

Jefferson Davis, September 3d, made requisition upon the 
Governors of Kentucky and Illinois for two regiments of in- 
fantry from each State to put down rebellion in Kansas, and 
also authorized General Smith to use the territorial militia. 

General Smith, instead of driving out armed bodies of 
men from Missouri, as did Colonel Sumner under Shannon's 
proclamation, instructed that " it will not be within the prov- 
ince of the troops to interfere with persons who may have 
come from a distance to give protection to their friends or 
others, and who may be behaving themselves in a peaceable 
and lawful manner." 

He also gave directions that no action by the troops must 
be allowed against the territorial militia ; and all armed pro- 
slavery men from Kansas or Missouri could be classed under 
that head. 

Thus the decks were cleared for another and final engage- 
ment in this war. Guemlla parties of pro-slavery men in- 



3l8 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

fested the whole Territory as by magic. Intercourse with 
Leavenworth and Kansas City was cut off, and the be- 
leaguered town of Lawrence was nearly destitute of provi- 
sions as well as ammunition. Men unarmed and defenseless 
were shot down Hke dogs, and in one instance, at least, 
scalped. All appeals to Woodson for protection were in 
vain, and the end seemed fast approaching. The grand rally 
was to be from the eastern border. All the great generals, 
from Atchison, Reid, and others from Missouri, down to 
the smaller fry of the Territory, were on hand. The first 
demonstration was to be upon the reputed home of John 
Brown. Professor Spring truthfully says, in his " Kansas," 
page 190: "To Dutch Henry's Crossing must be charged 
much of the havoc and anarchy in which the Kansas of 
1856 weltered. That affair was a festering, rankhng, en- 
venomed memory among pro-slavery men. It set afoot 
retahatory violences, which for a while were successfully 
matched, and more than matched, by their opponents, but 
finally issued in a total military collapse of the Free-State 
cause." 

On the 30th of August, General Reid, with a detachment 
from the main army, visited the hated town of Osawatomie. 
On approaching it. Rev. Martin White, who had personal 
reasons for remembering the Brown family, who attacked 
his cabin and took his horses in April of that year, met 
Frederick Brown, and exclaiming, " Why, I know you," shot 
him dead. The town had about forty Free-State defenders, 
and fell an easy prey to the enemy. A few shots were ex- 
changed by the parties, W. W. Updegraff, John Brown, and 
Captain Cline, in command of the citizens, who soon fled 
across the creek out of harm's way. Six Free-State men 
lost their lives, either at the fight or before and after the 
encounter, and two pro-slavery men, according to Reid's 
report. The town was laid in ashes, excepting only four 
houses. 

These bold movements of Atchison, which were counte- 



FREE-STATE MEN AROUSED. 319 

nanced by Woodson, once more aroused the Free-State men. 
Lane had now returned from a two weeks' absence in " forti- 
fying the Nebraska hne," and with about three hundred and 
fifty men marched towards the invading forces. On coming 
within sight of the enemy, near Bull Creek, he ordered a 
retreat eight miles, where he camped for the night, return- 
ing the next morning to Lawrence without the loss of a man. 
In the meantime the Governor's militia had not been idle 
about Lecompton. Seven Free-State men had been burned 
out of house and home, besides other outrages daily perpe- 
trated in the vicinity. As some Free-State prisoners were 
held at Lecompton by the militia, the men at Lawrence 
concluded to visit the territorial capital in force. Colonel 
P. St. George Cooke, September 5th, thus reports the affair : 

" About a mile from town I joined the dismounted command, and, 
rising the hill prairie above the town, came upon the flank of about 
sixty mounted men in line, who remained motionless. Ordering the 
dragoons to halt nearly in open column, I rode in front of the Lawrence 
men, and accosted Captain Walker, who was in command, asking what 
he came after. He answered, that they came to release prisoners and 
have their rights. He said they had sent into town to treat with the 
Governor. I asked him if that was all their men. He said, Oh, no, 
there were seven hundred more close by. I told him it was a very un- 
fortunate move on their part, that the prisoners had been ordered to be 
released ; and, among other things, said if they attacked the town, I 
should attack them. He asked me if I would go with him to the main 
body. I consented, and sent an order to Colonel Johnston, then arriv- 
ing on the hill, to remain there in command of the troops until I re- 
turned ; and taking Lieutenant Riddick, acting Assistant Quartermas- 
ter, an orderly, and bugler, rode with him towards the woods, near the 
town. * * * 

" I asked Mr. Walker to collect the officers in front of the line, and 
some twenty or thirty approached me, mounted. At the moment there 
was an altercation with Mr. Cramer, treasurer of the Territory, whom 
they had just made prisoner, who appealed to me, stating that he was a 
United States officer, and that he had been sent to me. I addressed 
these principal men. I said : ' You have made a most unfortunate 
move for yourselves ; the Missourians, you know, have gone, and the 
militia here are nearly gone, having commenced crossing the river yes- 
terday morning, to my knowledge. As to the prisoners, whilst I will 



320 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

make no tenns with you, I can infoiin you that they were promised to 
be released yesterday morning ; and the Governor this morning told me 
he would order the release of all of them, and was to send me word at 
what hour I should send a guard to escort them to camp ; that, there- 
fore, I could assure their prompt return to their homes ; that every- 
thing was going in their favor, and that it apparently would be so if 
they would refrain entirely from reprisals or any outrages, return to 
their occupations, and show moderation.' I required the release of the 
prisoner, Mr. Cramer, and their return to Lawrence. 

" I was asked if I could promise that affairs would be set right at 
Leavenworth, and they have power to go and come? Mentioning 
several cases of murders or killing, even this morning, I answered, ' I 
could only answer for this vicinity ; that things could not be settled in 
a moment ; that General Smith was close to Leavenworth, and that his 
powers and views, I believed, were the same as mine.' 1 was then 
asked the ever-recurring question, if I should attack them if they at- 
tempted there to redress themselves or defend themselves? I replied, 
' I give no pledge; that mymission was to preserve the peace.' 

" Great regret was expressed by them that they had not been in- 
formed before of these events ; they said they had waited long ; that 
their messengers were killed or made prisoners, and mentioned that a 
regiment was then over the river, and apprehended it would lead to bad 
results, and I was asked to send to them to go back to Lawrence. I 
suggested that a written order should be sent, and one was afterwards 
handed me; they then released three prisoners, and marched off to 
return, whilst I rode over to the town with the released prisoners. I 
found one or two hundred militia, whom I had previously seen opposite, 
among the walls of the new capitol, under General Marshall. 

" I found the Governor, and informed him of my action and its 
results. He said the prisoners had been released, but, in fact, the 
order had not yet been executed." 

Colonel Cooke said the Governor and others pretended 
to desire the arrest of Lane, who did not make his appear- 
ance in the consultation. In his letter dated September 7 th, 
Colonel Cooke says : 

" I sent down yesterday Mr. Hutchinson and friends. He promised 
me that all prisoners should be released, and that the people would 
return to their occupations. 

" In town nine other prisoners, released by order of General Rich- 
ardson, were delivered to me. Some had been taken, as teamsters, I 
believe, near Leavenworth, ten or twelve days ago, I sent them with 
a small escort to Lawrence. General Richardson went with them ; he 



CHANGE OF BASE. 32 1 

had intended to go without escort. The sergeant of escort reports that, 
soon after his arrival, lie rode out on the Franklin Road with General 
Lane and Captain Walker, perhaps to insure his safety. 

" A large number of militia went off undischarged for their homes ; 
others, with some organization, pretending that they would resupply 
themselves and return. A large company remains in town, which I 
object to. General Marshall says they are a company from the Blue." 

From this second letter it would seem that a deception 
was being practised upon the army officers and the people. 
While prisoners about Lecompton were discharged and mili- 
tia companies were leaving ostensibly for their homes, these 
companies were not mustered out, but some of them claimed 
they would resupply themselves and return. Evidently they 
simply went towards Missouri, but brought up in Atchison's 
camp on the border. Also, the fact that General Richard- 
son, on his way to join Atchison, could ride on friendly 
terms with Lane, when only the day before they claimed to 
want him arrested, is at least significant, and Lane's conduct 
soon after adds to its significance. 

Mrs. Robinson, in her "Kansas," page 337, says: 

" The prisoners came over to the camp at evening (September 5th) 
and, under military escort, went to Lawrence the next day. General 
Richardson, of the ' Kansas militia,' made a visit in Lawrence. He 
was received kindly by General Lane, who escorted him on his way to 
Franklin. He stated ' he was on his way to disperse the Missourians, 
who were coming into the Territory.' " 

If he so stated, he made a false statement, as he did noth- 
ing of the kind. 

While war manifestations were lessening on the west of 
Lawrence, they were assuming gigantic proportions east of 
it. All the border counties of western Missouri were aroused 
and apparently moving Kansas-ward. Steamboats coming 
up the Missouri River were loaded with armed men and 
munitions of war. Even the boat which brought the new 
Governor, Geary, was no exception to the rule. 

At Lecompton all prisoners, including the treason pris- 
21 



322 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



oners, were turned loose, the latter on the loth of Septem- 
ber, just four months from the arrest of Robinson at Lexing- 
ton. These prisoners were met by a long procession from 
Lawrence, and, as other prisoners arrived in the town on 
the same day, a general jubilee was held. But the rejoicing 
came to a sudden close. Lane, while he met the prisoners 
on arrival, left soon after, with a body-guard of about thirty 
men, in the direction of Nebraska. As this army from Mis- 
souri, said to be the most formidable ever seen in Kansas, 
was moving towards Lawrence, and Lane was moving to- 
wards Nebraska, an investigation of the situation was at 
once made. While army officers had estimated the force at 
Lawrence, at different times, from five hundred to eight 
hundred strong, and Captain Walker told Colonel Cooke he 
had seven hundred men with him on the south side of the 
river, at Lecompton, and Colonel Harvey had one hundred 
and fifty men on the north side, there could not be found in 
Lawrence, when Lane left, over three hundred men with 
arms of any kind, and of this number Lane sent a dispatch 
for all the best arms and the cannon to go to him at Hickory 
Point, in Jefferson County, where he had met some men who 
had organized for mutual protection. Official and other 
testimony is to the effect that these men were of both par- 
ties, united for protection against the thieves and marauders 
of all kinds. Colonel Harvey took one hundred men, with 
Sharp's rifles and the cannon, and went to help Lane out of 
the Territory, leaving only about fifty Sharp's rifles in town, 
and two hundred men and no cannon. 

Mrs. Robinson, in her " Kansas," page 330, says, under 
date 24th of August : "It was estimated that in twelve 
hours' time from fifteen hundred to two thousand men could 
be ralHed to defend Lawrence." This force was placed 
under the command of Lane, and now, when an army of 
two thousand eight hundred men was marching upon the 
Free- State settlements — had already destroyed Osawatomie 
— the towns were left utterly defenseless. 



ARRIVAL OF GEARY. 323 

The future historian will have several questions to solve 
relative to the motive and purpose of Lane in this wonderful 
generalship. Among the queries to be answered will be 
these : Was he moved by fear, as when he left Kansas be- 
tween the great battle with " live and straw " men at Fort 
Saunders, and the battle at Fort I'itus ? Did he think, as 
the treason prisoners would be the first to " go up " should 
the pro-slavery army enter Lawrence, he might thus get rid 
of a claim dispute without having to kill his contestant — 
Gains Jenkins, a late treason prisoner — with his own hand? 
or did he think it a good time to give a final coup de grace to 
the Free- State cause ? 

Governor Geary arrived at Fort Leavenworth September 
gth, and at Lawrence on the 12th. As he had known Rob- 
inson by reputation in California, when the entire militia of 
that embryo State was called out to put down fifteen men, 
of whom he was one ; and as Robinson had known Geary 
by reputation as Mayor of San Francisco in trying times, 
they met and became at once frank and somewhat confi- 
dential in their interview. Governor Geary assured Robin- 
son that he was in earnest in putting an end to the troubles 
in Kansas, as it was a pohtical necessity for the Democratic 
party. The whole North was a seething caldron of excite- 
ment over Kansas affairs, and Buchanan's election was in 
danger. He had issued a proclamation ordering all armed 
bodies of men to disperse, which he brought to Lawrence. 

Robinson questioned the propriety of enforcing this order 
while the Missourians, under pretense of mihtia, were march- 
ing upon the town. Governor Geary said they would be 
under his control, and he would guarantee protection. Upon 
being told by Robinson that he did not know his mihtia, that 
they might or might not obey his orders, he consented that 
the people of Lawrence might retain their military organiza- 
tions till he should send the Missourians home. He went 
again to Lecompton, promising to return in time to meet the 
Missourians before they should reach Lawrence. 



324 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



On the 14th of September, the enemy arrived at Frankhn, 
A messenger was dispatched with the information to Gov- 
ernor Geary. In the afternoon a large party of horsemen 
approached the town from the direction of Frankhn. Im- 
mediately all who were armed with Sharp's rifles started 
upon the double-quick to intercept and repulse them. About 
fifty men thus went out, formed a skirmish line, and drove 
them back. As soon as this body of horsemen made its 
appearance, other dispatches were sent to Geary at Lecomp- 
ton, one by G. W. Brown, who had been introduced to him 
by a letter of a mutual friend, and one by Robinson. Gov- 
ernor Geary immediately applied to Colonel Cooke, who 
started the troops at once for Lawrence, they arriving in the 
night, their artillery on Oread Hill, and the dragoons in the 
valley between Lawrence and Franklin. When this force 
arrived Robinson became insane, and procured some wine 
and carried to the officers who but recently had him in 
charge as a treason prisoner, and treated them. This was 
the first and last time in his life he was guilty of such an in- 
discretion. Governor Geary and Colonel Cooke arrived 
early in the morning, and met the Missourians as they were 
moving towards Lawrence. He immediately held a con- 
sultation with their officers, and the war, inaugurated May 
24th on the Potawatomie by John Brown, ended then and 
there. 

As it is claimed by Mr. Sanborn, Redpath, and others 
that John Brown saved Lawrence at this time, it may be 
important to refer to the matter. While Robinson was pres- 
ent and endeavored to watch the situation from first to last, 
his testimony will not be given, as he may be thought to be 
an interested witness by some. Major J. B. Abbott was 
officer of the day, according to Colonel Walker, and wore 
his sash as such, while Joseph Cracklin was ranking officer, 
being appointed Lieutenant-Colonel by Lane a short time be- 
fore. Colonel Cracklin was a member of the Boston party 
that went to CaUfomia in 1S49, was an intimate associate 



COLONEL CRACKLIN's STATEMENT. 325 

with Robinson, had been a sailor, and was well versed in all 
matters of peace and war. He was a most valuable factor 
from first to last, and was captain of the famous " Stubbs " 
until promoted. From his account of the preparations and 
proceedings of that time, as published in the Lawrence 
Tribune, the following extracts are made : 

^'Editor Tribime : 

" Sir: It was with much pleasure I read the very interesting article 
of Governor Robinson, in your issue of the i6th instant. The perver- 
sion of history referred to by the Governor, and the desire on the part 
of the friends and worshippers of John Brown, intentionally or other- 
wise, to give him credit where it was not due, is sincerely to be regret- 
ted. As the Governor truly says : 'John Brown never had anything 
whatever to do with erecting or commanding any fortification about 
Lawrence, and never saved the town from attack, or did any more to- 
wards it than the most obscure person in the town.' The Governor is 
right. I was here and took an active part in all the troubles, as Cap- 
tain of the ' Stubbs,' and certainly ought to know. « * * John 
Brown had nothing to do with either building or commanding any fort 
or breastwork about Lawrence, or with the defense of Lawrence against 
any attack whatever. A day or two before the arrival of the ruffian two 
thousand seven hundred, I met General Lane on the street. He took 
me by the arm and requested me to accompany him to his office ; arriv- 
ing there, he presented me with a lieutenant-colonel's cornmission. 
At first I was disposed to reject it, not wishing to sever my connection 
with the Stubbs ; but he urged me so strongly to accept that I finally 
yielded, and sent my resignation as captain to Lieutenant Cutler. The 
company immediately called a meeting and proceeded to fill the vacancy 
by electing Cutler. Soon after, Lyman Allen informed me that Gov- 
ernor Robinson wanted to see me at his office. I called on the Gov- 
ernor, who congratulated me on my promotion, and said he had reliable 
information that a large force were on their way to attack and destroy 
Lawrence ; that our force in town was small, and would still be more 
reduced by the absence of Colonel Harvey, who intended to start that 
night on a private expedition. But the Stubbs were not to leave under 
any consideration, without orders from headquarters. He also said he 
wanted me to make the best disposition of the force we had, for the 
defense of the town, in doing which I was to use my best judgment. 
Accordingly, in compliance with his instructions, I had a strong guard 
posted around the town that night, and the next morning proceeded to 
station our men to the best advantage. One body of men was stationed 
in the circular fort at the junction of Massachusetts and Henry streets. 



326 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

one at the foundation of my house on Rhode Island street, under the 
command of Jeff. Conway. I went for the Stubbs, but, to my sorrow, 
I found they had disobeyed orders, and left town with Colonel Harvey. 
I had notified Captain Cutler personally of the Governor's orders on 
the evening before. I regretted their absence very much. I then 
hunted up the Wabaunsee Rifles. I could find but ten ; these I posted 
under Captain Lynde at the point where Roberts' box mill now stands, 
with instructions to remain there until the enemy came within gunshot, 
when they were to open fire, and if obliged to retreat, to fall back grad- 
ually and orderly under cover of the buildings, keeping up a running 
fire. I then left them to make further disposition. As I was return- 
ing, I heard some one cry out, ' There they come.' I stopped, turned 
my eyes in the direction of Franklin, and I saw a large force of horse- 
men going towards Mr. Haskell's. I immediately started on a run for 
the Wabaunsee boys, and told them to follow me, and started on a dog 
trot towards the cabin of John Speer, and halted a short distance from 
it on the top of a ridge. At the time I halted, the enemy had passed 
into the timber beyond Haskell's. Supposing it was their intention to 
pass into the bottom and approach the town in that direction, I con- 
cluded to wait where I was until they showed themselves, feeling that, 
with them in the bottom, I would have the advantage of position and 
could attack them with a plunging fire. I was disappointed, however. 
In a few minutes they made their appearance, coming out of the timber 
and heading towards us. As soon as they got in range I ordered the 
boys to open fire. We had not fired more than a dozen shots, when, 
looking towards town, I saw quite a number of men on the run to our 
assistance. In the meantime the enemy had disappeared in a hollow or 
ravine. 

"As fast as my friends arrived I placed them in line, deployed as 
skirmishers at six paces intervals, until my force amounted to fifty-eight. 
Not seeing anything of the enemy, I sent Ed. Bond, who was mounted, 
to see what they were doing. We watched him until he arrived at the 
entrance of the ravine, where the enemy were concealed, when he 
stopped, levelled his rifle, and fired ; he then put spurs to his pony and 
galloped back. He reported them in the ravine at a halt, and some dis- 
mounted. I then ordered a forward movement, with my line extended 
as skirmishers. We had a space of half or three-quarters of a mile to 
cross before we would reach the ridge that separated us from the enemy. 
On reaching it, we discovered them just going out of the upper end of 
the ravine in the direction of Hanscom's farm. I ordered the boys to 
open fire, to load and fire at will; our whole line immediately com- 
menced blazing away. They fired several shots in return, but they fell 
short. One of their men was seen to fall near Hanscom's fence. They 
put spurs to their horses and galloped away towards Franklin. * * * 



CREDIT DUE. 327 

" The only fighting done on that day was done by the gallant little 
force I had the honor to command, and John Brown had nothing to do 
with it, either directly or indirectly, Redpath and other worshippers to 
the contrary notwithstanding. 

" J. Cracklix." 

Captain Cutler, who succeeded Cracklin as Captain of the 
Stubbs, gives as his reason for leaving Lawrence against 
Cracklin's orders, that he was ordered to do so by Colonel 
Harvey, who ranked Cracklin. Harvey received his orders 
from Lane, and hence the desertion of the town by its best 
men and arms in the face of an advancing enemy. 

As much other work performed by the Stubbs and other 
companies under command of Captains Cracklin, Walker, 
Abbott, and others has been credited to John Brown, ex- 
tracts are given from a letter of Captain Cracklin, published 
in the Lawrence Tribune of April 19, 1881 : 

"They had four camps at different points in the Territory, from 
which they sallied for murder and robbery, viz. : Doniphan, Franklin, 
Washington Creek, and one near Osawatomie had become such an un- 
endurable pest in the neighborhood they infested that no traveller could 
pass the roads in safety. Appeal was made to the United States for 
protection, but in vain, when, at the instance of the Free-State settlers 
in the immediate vicinity of this Georgia camp, an expedition was 
planned at Lawrence and given in my charge. I selected the Stubbs, 
Coal Creek, and Franklin companies, in all ninety-one men, and left 
Lawrence in the early part of August, 1856, and on the second day 
after, arrived at Osawatomie, where, after learning the position of the 
camp and the strength of the enemy, I made preparation for an imme- 
diate attack. Dividing my force in two divisions, about dark in the 
evening we ascended the hill, upon which the enemy had erected a large 
block-house, which served a double purpose, as a fort and residence. 
Advancing in open order on two points, we were surprised on arriving 
to find the fort abandoned. I immediately gave orders to remove every- 
thing of value and set fire to the building. I would here state, that at 
that time, John Brown was in Iowa, consequently he could have taken 
no part in the expedition. Yet, notwithstanding, Redpath gives him the 
credit of commanding the force that broke up this Georgia pest, that 
had so long harassed the settlers in that neighborhood. 

" This little affair was followed up by a series of attacks on all their 
camps. Next was Franklin, where I led the attacking party, composed 



328 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

of Stubbs, and a portion of the Coal Creek and Franklin companies, 
with a few others, and after a sharp little fight of three hours, we routed 
the enemy, took their camp, and captured one cannon and a large 
quantity of small arms, (The cannon is now in our city, and known 
as ' Old Sacramento.') In this engagement I had one man killed, and 
four wounded — Arthur Gunther, wounded severely in the breast and 
chin ; George Henry, slightly wounded in the breast ; John Crocker, 
slightly wounded in the head; George W. Smith, Jr., slightly wounded 
in the head and leg. George Sackett, a very estimable young man, was 
killed, shot through the head. 

"This was followed by the attacks on Washington Creek, Titus 
Fort, and Hickory Point, in all of which the Stubbs took an active 
part, until they were unfortunately captured, without resistance, by the 
United States troops, disarmed, and kept several months in a loath- 
some prison at Lecompton. 

"Joseph Cracklin." 

This capture of the Stubbs was occasioned by their 
answering the call of Lane when he fled to Nebraska as the 
2800 Missourians were marching upon Lawrence. 

When Colonel Harvey with his men reached Hickory 
Point, Lane had passed on with his body-guard in safety to 
his destination, the States. Harvey opened fire upon the 
cabin where the citizens and others had gathered for mutual 
protection, and after a skirmish in which shots were given 
and returned, a settlement was effected, all parties joining in 
a treat. But as Governor Geary's proclamation had been 
issued, the United States troops went for Harvey's men and 
arrested them. Some escaped, but loi were brought to 
Lecompton, and were kept prisoners several months, all on 
account of the generalship of Sanborn's " indispensable " 
hero, Lane. 

This is a very brief outline of the conflict of 1856. As it 
has been claimed that two men, and not the policy and 
members of the Free-State party, saved the cause of free 
Kansas, care has been taken to give their course in full. As 
has been seen, this policy of the Free-State men and party 
had been to do no wrong, commit no crime, but to prevent 
the establishment of slavery by the so-called territorial laws 



CONDITION OF TERRITORY. 329 

by making them a dead letter — by the baffling process which 
Governor Shannon conceded would nullify them. As An- 
dreas says, the policy of assassination, plunder, theft, rob- 
bery, arson, and murder was inaugurated by John Brown, 
and his followers practiced such outrages through the entire 
season. This, of course, gave excuse for retaliation in kind, 
which was most successfully practiced by the Slave-State 
party until the Free-State men were virtually subdued and 
driven from the field. Had there been no outside influences 
to interfere, three days more would have sufficed to lay 
waste every Free-State settlement in the Territory, including 
Lawrence, Topeka, and Manhattan. Their fate would have 
been that of Osawatomie. The territory outside of these 
settlements was already a conquered province. Lawrence 
was in a state of siege and nearly destitute of provisions, 
under the exclusive generalship of Lane and Brown, while 
the atmosphere was blackened with the smoke of biu-ning 
shanties and cabins of Free-State men. 

Governor Geary gives a striking picture of the situation 
as seen on his arrival, as follows : 

" I reached Kansas and entered upon the discharge of my official 
duties in the most gloomy hour of her history. Desolation and ruin 
reigned on every hand ; homes and firesides were deserted ; the smoke 
of burning dwellings darkened the atmosphere ; women and children, 
driven from their habitations, wandered over the prairies and among 
the woodlands, or sought refuge and protection even among the Indian 
tribes. The highways were infested with numerous predatory bands, 
and the towns were fortified and garrisoned by armies of conflicting 
partisans, each excited almost to frenzy, and determined upon mutual 
extermination. Such was, without exaggeration, the condition of the 
Territory at the period of my arrival." 

Redpath says that nearly all Free-State settlers had been 
driven from Linn and Miami counties, the neighborhood of 
Brown's Dutch Henry's massacre, and all north of the Kan- 
sas River was completely subjugated ; so much so that Lane, 
the commanding General of the Free-State forces, did not 
dare attempt his escape through this region without a body- 



:^^0 THE KANSAS CONFLICT, 

guard of nearly or quite thirty men. But, it will be asked, 
did not these men, Brown and Lane, show remarkable traits 
of generalship ? The only battles in which Brown was en- 
gaged were at Black Jack and Osawatomie. At the first 
Captain Shore had nineteen men and Brown nine. Shore 
with his men attacked Pate from the open prairie and drove 
him into the ravine, while Brown took to the ravine at once, 
and was not in sight of the foe at all. Shore also went into 
the ravine, and shots were exchanged for several hours, till 
Captain J. B. Abbott appeared in sight of the enemy with 
his company, when Pate surrendered. This is substantially 
the part played in this battle by Brown. 

At the other battle, the second raid upon Osawatomie, all 
the Free-State men, under command of Captains Updegraff, 
Brown, and Cline, immediately went to the timber of the 
Marais des Cygnes, where a few shots were exchanged. 
When pressed by the enemy, there was no orderly retreat, 
as is usual on such occasions, but a general " skedaddle," 
every man for himself. John Brown disappeared with the 
rest, and was not again seen till near night, when Captain J. 
M. Anthony, brother of Susan B. Anthony, saw him. Cap- 
tain Anthony, after caring for Dr. Updegraff and others, 
says : "I went back to the Crane house, and began to think 
about getting something to eat, as we had gone out without 
breakfast, and had had nothing to eat all day. I went down 
to the barn-yard to milk the cow, and while doing that saw 
John Brown advancing up the ravine. When he got to 
within about twenty feet of me, or just across the fence, he 
stopped, and said, 'Hello, is that you?' I replied that it 
was undoubtedly, and we talked for several minutes, he ask- 
ing me all about the result of the day's engagement. He 
seemed to be entirely ignorant of the result, and, like Dr. 
Updegraff, and indeed everybody else, thought the whole 
community had been killed." These are the only battles in 
1856 where Brown had any men or exercised any authority, 
notwithstanding, according to Redpath and company, it 



LANES EXPLOITS. 33 1 

would be inferred he was a prodigy of valor and generalship. 
Lane's encounters have already been given. He marched 
his " live and straw men," according to his special friend 
and eulogizer, John Speer, to Washington Creek, and then 
fled between two days to Nebraska, where he threw up 
breastworks to fortify the line, whether to prevent ingress or 
egress does not appear. He also, as Andreas says, "made 
a faint feint " against Reid's forces near Bull Creek, after 
the destruction of Osawatomie, at which " he was an adept," 
and his march with the command to Lecompton, led by 
Colonel Samuel Walker. These are all of his exploits, except 
stripping Lawrence of its arms and men to help him escape 
from the 2800 Missourians in September. These particulars 
are given simply because, on account of the scribblings of 
hero-worshippers, these men have been made to appear as 
the saviors of Kansas, when from the standpoint of the Free- 
State pohcy, Kansas would have been saved with much less 
suffering and bloodshed without than with them. Also it is 
a great injustice to the really brave and fighting men, whose 
courage, prudence, and firmness did save the cause, in spite 
of the reckless course of Brown and the reckless advice of 
Lane. 

The men relied upon for fighting purposes were those 
connected with the different military organizations, and 
others ; while the policy was adopted by the rank and file 
of the Free-State party, except the two heroes who would 
have brought the party in conflict with Federal authority on 
more than one occasion, had they not been prevented., 



CHAPTER XIII. 

the conduct of the army in kansas. agitation in 

the east. the presidential election. governor 

Geary's failure. 

The question will be asked, if Kansas was powerless to 
save itself, what agency or agencies did save it f The im- 
mediate and direct agency was Governor Geary with the 
United States troops ; and President Pierce sent the Gov- 
ernor to do the work ; but what induced the President to 
take this action ? The answer is rather intricate. It will be 
remembered that a messenger was sent East after the con- 
sultation of Howard and Sherman, of the Congressional 
Committee, with Reeder, Roberts, Mrs. Sherman, Mrs. 
Robinson, and Robinson. This messenger visited, among 
others, Amos A. Lawrence of Boston. Mr. Lawrence was 
famihar with every movement that had been made in Kan- 
sas affairs, and comprehended the situation at once. He 
immediately set his machinery in motion. He caused peti- 
tions to be circulated for assembhng the Legislatures in the 
Northern States, that steps might be taken to protect their 
citizens in Kansas from^ Federal and border ruffian outrage. 
Also a strong protest to the President against this oppression 
was drawn up, to be signed by Northern governors, all to 
induce him to call a halt if he would prevent civil war in 
the country. 

The Congressional Committee made a report which 
shocked the nation from centre to circumference. All re- 
ports of outrages sent from Kansas were more than con- 
firmed by the sworn testimony taken by this committee. 



OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. 



333 



Abolitionists, Free-soilers, Whigs, and Democrats stood 
aghast at this revelation of infamy. 

The blockade of the Missouri River by the land pirates 
along its banks added fuel to the flames of indignation, and 
armies began to collect and march through Iowa and Ne- 
braska to engage in the civil strife. 

The arrest and confinement of men guilty of no crime but 
that of defending their homes from outrage, and the de- 
struction of a hotel and printing presses by pretended law, 
capped the climax. 

A Presidential election was pending, and should the out- 
rages and disturbances continue, no power on earth could 
save the Democratic party from utter defeat. 

Add to all this, the personal appeal of Mrs. Lawrence, 
mother of Amos A., whose good opinion the President said 
he preferred to that of all the politicians, and it is not diffi- 
cult to discern some of the reasons why Geary was sent out 
and Kansas reheved. 

The appeal of Mrs. Lawrence to the President is thus 
referred to in Professor Spring's " Kansas," on page 196 : 

"It is said that a letter was received from a lady — the wife of one 
of the prisoners, and probably Mrs. Robinson — which put the case in a 
favorable light, and being read aloud by Mrs. Pierce to her husband, it 
took hold of the feelings of both. These expectations were not disap- 
pointed. 'I have given such orders concerning Dr. Robinson as will 
please you,' President Pierce informed the Boston friends, and the 
' Bastile-on-the-prairies ' was broken up. Mr. Lawrence's knowledge 
of the letter, a not inconsiderable factor in efTecting the modification of 
Federal policy towards Kansas, which now took place, and in hastening 
the arrival of Woodson's successor in the Territory, was not so slender 
as his language might seem to imply. He drafted the letter himself, 
and sent it to Mrs. Robinson, who copied and forwarded it to Mrs. 
Pierce." 

A word about the officers and men of the United States 
Army. It has been customary for letter-writers and stump 
orators to denounce the army as the ally of the Slave-State 
party, and as the enemy of freedom. This is a great mis- 



334 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



take. The army was entirely independent of both parties, 
and was always on the side of law, Federal law, and the 
Constitution, with the one exception of dispersing the To- 
peka Legislature, on the 4th of July, 1856. It is safe to 
say that, had it not been for the officers of the United States 
Army, the Free-State struggle would have ended in disaster 
on more than one occasion. After the massacre on the 
Potawatomie, all western Missouiu was moving upon Kan- 
sas to avenge this outrage upon unoffending pro-slavery 
men. It is true, with the assistance of the Sharp's rifles in 
the possession of Shore's and Abbott's companies. Pate had 
been captiu"ed and was held prisoner by Brown, but two 
armies were marching to rescue him, one under General 
Whitfield and one under General Coffin. 

Either of these forces would have annihilated Brown as 
soon as found, and the appearance of Colonel Sumner, in 
obedience to the proclamation of Governor Shannon, alone 
saved him. Colonel Sumner sent all the Missouri invaders 
home, as well as the Free-State military companies. 

During the summer of 1856, had the troops been hostile 
to the Free-State cause and acted as partisans, there were 
several occasions when the Free-State men would have 
suffered. One of these was when Titus's house was de- 
stroyed and he taken prisoner ; another was when Lecomp- 
ton was visited by a force of seven or eight hundred Free- 
State men to procure the release of persons held as prisoners. 

At another time Governor Woodson directed Colonel P. 
St. George Cooke to visit Topeka, make a general attack 
upon it, as in rebellion, and destroy its defenses. Colonel 
Cooke promptly and emphatically refused to comply with 
this order or demand. Here is the correspondence : 

"Executive Office, Lecompton, K. T., 

" September i, 1856. 
" Sir : The Marshal of the Territory having officially reported to me 
that ' the ordinary course of judicial proceedings and the powers in- 
vested in him as United States Marshal are wholly inadequate for the 
suppression of the insurrectionary combinations known to exist through- 



WOODSON AND COOKE. 335 

out the whole extent of the Territory,' it becomes my duty, as the Act- 
ing Executive, to make a requisition upon you for your entire command, 
or such portion of it as may, in your judgment, be consistently detached 
from their ordinary duty, to aid me in suppressing these insurrectionary 
combinations and invasive aggressions against the organized government 
of the Territory of Kansas. 

" Your command, or such part of it as may be deemed necessary, 
will therefore proceed at the earliest practicable moment to invest the 
town of Topeka, and disarm all the insurrectionists or aggressive in- 
vaders against the organized government of the Territory to be found 
at or near that point, retaining them as prisoners, subject to the order 
of the Marshal of the Territory. 

" All their breastworks, forts, or fortifications should be levelled to 
the ground. 

" It is very desirable to intercept all aggressive invaders against the 
Government on the road known as ' Lane's trail,' leading from the Ne- 
braska line to Topeka. If, therefore, your command is sufficiently 
large to admit of it, a detachment should be stationed on the road with 
orders to intercept all such ' aggressive invaders ' as they may make 
their appearance. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
" Daniel Woodson, 
" Acting Governor of Kansas Territory. 
" Lieutetiant-Colonel P. St. George Cooke, Commanding Utiited States 
Dragoons, 7icar Lecompton.''^ 

"Headquarters, Camp near Lecompton, K. T., 

" September 2, 1856 — 6 a.m. 

" Sir: I received last night your letter of September ist, informing 
me that the Marshal of the Territory had officially reported to you that 
' the ordinary course of judicial proceedings and the powers vested in 
him as United States Marshal are wholly inadequate for the suppression 
of insurrectionary combinations known to exist throughout the whole 
extent of the Territory,' and you therefore make requisition to aid you 
' in suppressing these insurrectionary combinations and invasive aggres- 
sions ' by marching to invest the town of Topeka, ' disarming all the in- 
surrectionists or aggressive invaders, retaining them as prisoners, sub- 
ject to the order of the Marshal,' and to level to the ground all breast- 
works, etc. 

" Since my instructions from the Secretary of War (February 15th), 
I am instructed by a letter from the Adjutant-General to Colonel Sumner, 
dated March 26, 1856, in relation to the course to be pursued towards 
armed bodies coming into the Territory, that ' it is only when an armed 
resistance is offered to the laws and against the peace and quiet of the 



336 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Territory, and when under such circumstances a requisition for a mili- 
tary force is made upon the commanding officer by the authority speci- 
fied in his instructions, that he is empowered to act.' 

" I am further instructed by General Smith (August 28, 1856), that 
if it should come to my knowledge ' that either side is moving upon the 
other with a view of attack, it will become my duty to observe their 
movements and prevent such hostile collision.' But it will not be 
within the province of the troops to interfere with persons who may 
have come from a distance to give protection to their friends, or others 
who may be behaving themselves in a peaceable or lawful manner. 
And, further, ' to make every exertion in my power with the force under 
my orders to preserve the peace and prevent bloodshed. ' 

" It is evident, both under the laws and my instructions, that the last 
resort — the effusion of the blood of the citizens by the military power — 
must be induced by a special act of resistance to the civil officer in the 
execution of his legal duty when assisted by that power. In no case 
yet has the Marshal of the Territory, thus aided, been resisted. No 
specification of resistance by the people of Topeka is made in your 
requisition, nor is my aid asked to assist the Marshal in the execution 
there of any law or the process of any court. It is simply a call upon 
me to make war upon the town of Topeka, to ' invest ' it, ' make pris- 
oners,' level defenses. 

" Your request that I should station troops on ' Lane's trail ' to 'in- 
tercept aggressive invaders,' would be clearly inconsistent with my last 
instructions ' not to interfere with persons who have come from a dis- 
tance,' etc., as well as those of March 26th. 

" In my best judgment, I cannot comply with your call. If the 
army be useless in the present unhappy crisis, it is because in our con- 
stitution and law civil war was not foreseen, nor the contingency of a 
systematic resistance by the people to governments of their own crea- 
tion, and which, at short intervals, they may either correct or change. 

" Your letter will be forwarded by express to Major-General Smith, 
for his consideration and action. 

" With great respect, your obedient servant, 

" P. St. George Cooke, 
" Lieutenant-Colonel Second Dragoons. 
" His Excc'lkticy Acting Governor Daniel Woodson, Lecompton, K. T." 

In this Colonel Cooke was sustained by General Smith, 
then in command at Fort Leavenworth. While the instruc- 
tions of General Smith not to interfere with persons who 
had come from a distance to protect their friends in Kan- 
sas, so long as they behaved themselves and violated no 



IMPORTANCE OF UNITED STATES ARMY. 337 

law, seemed at first sight to be intended to aid the pro- 
slavery party in protecting the people from Missouri when 
they should come to protect their partisan friends from mid- 
night assassinations, it is but just to say that he was impar- 
tial in the application of such instructions, and Free-State 
men from the North through Iowa and Nebraska were 
treated with the same leniency as were the pro-slavery men 
from Missouri and the South. The Free-State prisoners in 
charge of the troops, as soon as Colonel Sumner visited their 
camp, were treated with all the courtesy and kindness they 
could claim under the circumstances, and without exception 
the prisoners became ardent friends of their keepers. 

At the close of the conflict of arms, on the arrival of 
Governor Geary, the United States troops were indispen- 
sable in bringing hostilities to an end. Had it not been 
for the command of Colonel Cooke before Lawrence, the 
15th of September, 1856, there is but httle question that 
Lawrence and Topeka would have shared the fate of 
Osawatomie. Without the troops at his back, Governor 
Geary would have been ignored till this had been accom- 
phshed. 

Take it all in all, the conduct of the army during the Kan- 
sas conflict, even though under the direction of Jefferson 
Davis, Secretary of War, is worthy of all praise, with the 
single exception of the dispersion of the Legislature, and 
this was afterwards disapproved even by Secretary Davis 
and the President. Army officers, as a rule, are above all 
partisan bias, and are governed strictly by the Constitution, 
law, and army regulations. No branch of the Government 
is so free from partisan or personal influence, and no offi- 
cials are governed by a sense of honor as are army officers. 
The experience in the Kansas conflict has shown the value 
of the regular army in all conflicts among the people. This 
is the only force that can be relied upon to hold the scales 
of justice even when "madness rules the hour." 

Governor Geary having brought the olive branch to Kan- 
22 



338 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

sas, there was a general stampede of such leading Free-State 
men as had remained through the season to the States where 
the Presidential campaign was raging with great fury. 
General Fremont was the nominee of the Republicans and 
James Buchanan of the Democrats. Fremont had warmly 
espoused the cause of the Kansas settlers, and had many 
elements of popularity. Had the unbiased sentiment of the 
voters prevailed, he would have been elected, but money 
was used to carry Pennsylvania in the October election for 
the Democrats, and from that time there was no such thing 
as stemming the tide that set Buchanan-ward. The October 
vote of Pennsylvania was offered to the Republican Na- 
tional Executive Committee for a consideration, but the 
money was not forthcoming, and the transfer was made to 
the other party. Here was the first object-lesson on a large 
scale of machine politics the writer had ever witnessed. 
From that time to the present he has had but little faith in 
the triumph of principle, pure and simple, in national poli- 
tics. The oppressed people may agitate, educate, and or- 
ganize for relief, but when election-day arrives, the dema- 
gogues who seize the reins of their party will sell out to the 
highest bidder for cash or spoils. Such has been uniformly 
the case in the past, and such it will probably continue to 
be in all powerful governments, whatever the form. 

The election of James Buchanan was notice to all Kan- 
sans that their struggle was not ended. While the conflict 
of arms might not be renewed, there was to be one of poh- 
tics which would require all the skill of veterans to manage 
successfully. 

The agitation of the Presidential campaign and the ces- 
sation of hostilities started the Free-State emigrants to Kansas 
in great numbers, and there was to be no question as to major- 
ities. No pohtical action would be called for until 1857, and 
the respective parties had plenty of time to lay their plans. 
While there was an election in 1856 for one branch of the 
Legislature, the Free-State men ignored it, as it would give 



MURDER OF BUFFUM. 339 

them but one House, even if successful. Besides, the Slave- 
State party had the "returning boards," and there must be 
some assurance that they would make honest counts and 
honest returns. In the meantime Governor Geary was tak- 
ing his first lesson with his own party. He had come to 
Kansas with a purpose, namely, to quiet disturbances that 
the election of Buchanan might be secured. This had been 
accomphshed, and he vainly imagined that he was a char- 
acter of great importance, and that he could rule the destiny 
of Kansas. But he was not long in discovering his error. 
When he sent to their homes the 2800 men menacing Law- 
rence, one party passed up the California road to Lecomp- 
ton. A man of this party named Hays wantonly shot a 
peaceable settler, a cripple, named Buffum, almost in the 
presence of Geary, who took the poor man's hand in his own 
as he was dying and pledged him that his murderer should 
be brought to just punishment. At great expense the Gov- 
ernor caused the arrest of Hays, when Judge Lecompte 
issued his writ of habeas corpus, and discharged him on bail. 
Then Governor Geary became indignant, and demanded of 
the President the removal of Lecompte. But he soon dis- 
covered that Lecompte was the favorite at Washington, and 
not Geary, and that the effort to fasten slavery upon Kan- 
sas had been by no means abandoned. Geary eventually 
learned that he was mere surplusage, and only nominally 
Governor of the Territory. Before this fact dawned upon 
him, however, he conceived a plan of setthng forever the 
conflict in the Territory by securing admission to the Union 
as a State under the Topeka Constitution. He sent for 
Robinson, the Governor elect, for an interview at his office. 
Governor Geary was confident that Buchanan would be 
glad to be rid of the controversy in any feasible way, and 
was quite sure, if the office of governor could be made va- 
cant that some Democrat might fill the position, there would 
be no question of the approval of the Administration at 
Washington. It was evident that Governor Geary would 



340 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

expect to be the successful candidate for State governor. 
Robinson, who had staked his all upon the single issue of 
a Free-State for Kansas, and would be glad of success at 
whatever cost to himself, short of dishonor, at once agreed 
to make a vacancy in the office of governor, and visit 
Washington to advise with the Republicans m Congress; 
while Geary was to reconcile the Administration, which he 
had no doubt could be easily accomplished. Accordingly, 
Robinson gave his resignation to Lieutenant-Governor 
Roberts, and went to Washington. He was not long in 
learning, however, that the Democrats had regard neither 
for this plan nor for Governor Geary. It was evident that 
Geary's plans and recommendations were at a great discount 
at Washington. While Geary supposed his mission to Kan- 
sas for quieting the Territory that Buchanan might be 
elected meant also the abandonment of the Slave-State con- 
test, the party manipulators meant no such thing. They 
gladly used Geary, and suspended hostilities to tide over the 
election, but the endeavor to subjugate Kansas to slavery 
was by no means to be abandoned. 

As soon as it became generally known that the State Gov- 
ernor elect had left his resignation with Lieutenant-Governor 
Roberts and gone to Washington, a howl went up from his 
enemies, of which he always had an ample supply, accusing 
him of desertion of the Free-State cause, and of all the polit- 
ical crimes known to the calendar. Even the Herald of 
Freedom joined the chorus. The Legislature was to meet 
m January, but neither Robinson nor Roberts was present. 
Instead of presenting the resignation of Robinson to the 
Legislature as expected, Roberts was himself absent. The 
indignation manifested was legitimate and the censure mer- 
ited. However, at the convention held on March lo, 1857, 
Robinson had rettuned and explained his course to the con- 
vention, when a resolution was adopted expressing satisfac- 
tion with the explanation and requesting a withdrawal of the 
resignation. The resignation, which had never been pre- 



GEARY NOT SUSTAINED. 34 1 

sented to the Legislature, was revoked and peace once more 
prevailed. 

Instead of paving the way for admission to the Union by 
his scheme, Governor Geary found he had merely involved 
himself in trouble. The Territorial Legislature held a ses- 
sion, and soon war raged with the Executive. Bills would 
be vetoed only to be passed by a two-thirds vote as soon as 
retiu-ned ; and had the Governor and Legislature belonged 
to opposite pohtical parties, the hostility could not have 
been more bitter. At length matters reached a crisis, when 
the Governor refused to appoint a Mr. Sherard to an office 
he desired. Sherard grossly insulted the Governor, whose 
friends called a mass meeting to denounce the insult. But 
the insulter appeared, drew his revolver, and commenced 
shooting at random, when Mr. Jones, a friend of the Gov- 
ernor, shot him dead. From this time henceforth there was 
no rest in Kansas for Governor Geary, and he took advan- 
tage of the darkness and the services of Colonel Walker to 
make his exit. His resignation took effect on the 4th of 
March, the day the man he had been instrumental in elect- 
ing President entered upon his office. 

No Governor had a more difficult role to play than 
Geary. If his course should please one party, it was sure 
to offend the other. His first move of pacification, however, 
was accepted by both parties — by the Free-State party be- 
cause their constitutional rights were restored to them, and 
by the pro-slavery party because of the political necessity. 
Had Geary after the election ignored his pledges to the 
people and joined in the effort to fasten slavery upon Kan- 
sas by means of the Lecompton Constitution provided by 
his Legislature, he might have retained his office, but at the 
expense of his plighted word. He chose to remain true to 
his pledges, and retain his honor and self-respect, and was 
discarded by his party. 

His plan for putting down the thieves and outlaws of both 
parties was excellent. He had mustered into the service 



342 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

two companies of the citizens, one under Colonel Titus and 
one under Captain Walker. This worked to a charm. The 
pro-slavery company would see that no depredations were 
committed upon their friends, and the Free-State company 
would attend to the others. At this time a large number of 
"reprisal" men, professedly Free-State, were subsisting on 
the people by robbery, and they had no idea of giving up 
their occupation. Dr. Brown, in his " Reminiscences," 
page 41, refers to some of them as follows: 

" AN EXCITING INCIDENT. 

"To illustrate the times and disturbed state of Kansas during this 
interesting period in the history of the Territory, I give the following 
facts : 

"After our release from imprisonment; the arrival of Governor 
Geary; the return of Generals Heiskell and Reid, with their invading 
army of twenty-seven hundred to Missouri ; the disappearance of Old 
John Brown, his sons, and their families towards Iowa ; the arrest and 
imprisonment of Colonel Harvey and his command of one hundred, 
who had unwisely responded to an ' order ' of General Lane's, after 
Governor Geary's proclamation of peace ; and while Governor Geary 
and his escort were making a tour of southern Kansas to tranquillize 
the agitation in that quarter, probably some time during the last days 
of October, I was sitting at my table, in the sanctum of the Herald of 
Freedom office building, preparing copy for the paper. A rap at the 
inner door. I arose, opened it, and saw three men standing before me, 
armed with revolvers and bowies, and I think Sharp's rifles. Speaking 
to them, one introduced himself as Captain H. Shaking hands with 
him, he then introduced the others, one as ' my First Lieutenant,' giv- 
ing his name, which has escaped me ; the other as ' Second Lieutenant,' 
whose name is also forgotten. I passed them chairs, and took a seat 
myself at the table where I had been writing. 

" Captain H. opened the conversation ; inquired how soon the Herald 
of Freedom would again appear ; congratulated me on my restoration to 
liberty, and then said, with a hearty laugh, in which the whole trio 
joined: 'Governor Geary is tranquillizing the Territory.' I replied 
that he seemed to be doing much in that direction, and from the char- 
acter of letters to me from personal friends in Pennsylvania, who knew 
Governor Geary well, I had no doubt of his success, provided the au- 
thorities at Washington would not interfere with his work. 

" ' He can never do it,' replied Captain H. ' It is too late. The 



reprisal" men. 343 

ruffians have overrun Kansas, have had their day until the Free-State 
men are thoroughly organized for revenge, and now they want to tran- 
qicillize us. Ha, ha, ha, they can't do it. Let me tell you, Mr. 
Brown, my lieutenants here and myself have been following in the rear 
of Governor Geary's pacific tour, and we have been trying to show that 
the thing won't tranquillize.' He then proceeded to narrate various 
crimes they had committed, entering into details, telling of murders, 
arsons, rapes, horse-stealing, and other offenses of an aggravated char- 
acter. * » * 

" ' I think you mistake the true policy. Our ambition is to make 
Kansas a free State. Our success is contingent upon the number of 
actual settlers we have from the free North, who will co-operate with 
us. To get these settlers it is our interest, as well as duty, to quiet 
down the excitement, show up the beauty of the country, the healthful 
climate, productive soil, and satisfy them that we have the ability to 
make it free, and we will see such an emigration Kansas-ward next 
spring as the world has never seen before. You must remember. Cap- 
tain, that the great mass of us are here with our families, our property, 
with all we have in the world. We came here to build up homes and 
free institutions, and to be successful we must have peace and quiet.' 

" ' You can't do it. You can't do it. It is too late. We have got 
stirred up in the matter, and by G — we shall keep it stirred up. I have 
told you what we have done. We shall continue in the rear of Gov- 
ernor Geary's movements, and we shall continue to agitate,' replied the 
Captain, the lieutenants with oaths endorsing his threats. 

" ' Gentlemen, if this is the case, I shall feel in honor bound to re- 
peat this conversation to Governor Geary, and, much as 1 despise the 
bogus authorities, I shall hope to see you arrested and convicted for 
your crimes.' * * * 

"They retreated down-stairs; and twenty-two years have passed 
since then. Whether any of them are now living, I don't know, but 
the facts are in every essential particular as I have narrated." 

But Walker and Titus were too much for the thieves, and 
some of them left the Territory and joined John Brown in 
the States, and others went into southern Kansas, to appear 
again later. 



CHAPTER XIV, 

STATE AND TERRITORIAL ELECTIONS IN 1 85 7. 

The year 1857 was as noteworthy for its political conflicts 
as was 1856 for its warlike demonstrations. The Legislature 
of 1856 had provided for a State Constitution, the members 
of the convention for which were to be elected June 15, 
1857; the Topeka State government required an election 
of State officers and a Legislature ; and the election of a 
Territorial Legislature was to be held on the 5th and 6th 
of October. 

The first question to be met was, Shall the Free-State 
party participate in the election of members of the Lecomp- 
ton Constitutional Convention ? On examining the regula- 
tions for the election as provided by the Territorial Legisla- 
ture, it was found that no honest election was intended or 
would be permitted. The Missouri Democrat, of March 
13th, thus speaks: 

" If ever means were taken to pack a convention, they have been 
taken in this case. Nothing has been omitted — nothing left to chance. 
The plan of packing is as elaborate and as perfect as the wit of man can 
make it. The time, the mode, and the machinery have been selected 
with Satanic skill. Every contingency is provided for in this compact 
and complicated scheme. From the taking of the census by the county 
sheriff to the organization of the convention, through the graded sur- 
veillance of election judges, probate judges, etc., the felon Legislature 
has provided as effectively for securing the desired result as Louis Na- 
poleon did for getting himself elected emperor. 

" The irresponsibility of the convention and the integrity of its pro- 
duction from the subsequent action of the people, are also carefully 
provided for. The ratifying voice of the people, contrary to usage, is 
ignored. No freedom of election and no official fidelity can be expected. 



WALKER AND STANTON, 345 

Afraid of the spring immigration, the felon Legislature disfranchised 
everyone who should not be a resident on the 15th instant; and to 
prevent the rejection of the constitution (adopted long since in the 
caucuses of the Blue Lodge), no provisions were made for submitting 
that radiant scroll to the people. The convention will be packed from 
the foundation-stone to its eave-stone, and every honest man in Kansas 
will therefore see the propriety of shunning it as he would Pandemo- 
nium itself." 

President Buchanan appointed Hon. Robert J. Walker 
Governor, and Hon, F. P. Stanton Secretary of the Terri- 
tory, to take the places of Governor Geary, resigned, and 
of Secretary Woodson. 

Secretary Stanton arrived in April, one month in advance 
of Governor Walker, and on the 24th of that month visited 
Lawrence, where he addressed the citizens. Like all other 
officials, he promised to enforce the territorial laws even to 
the extent of causing " war to the knife and knife to the 
hilt." In all other respects his conduct was such as favor- 
ably to impress the citizens. Mr. Stanton, his companion 
McLean, and Horace White, of the Chicago Tribune, were 
entertained by Robinson at tea, when a full and frank dis- 
cussion of the questions at issue was had, particularly with 
reference to voting for delegates to the Constitutional Con- 
vention. A part of this interview, as reported by Horace 
White for his paper, is given as follows: 

" When the penumbra of the new Administration appeared in Law- 
rence, accompanied by a border rufifian in steeple boots, the citizens 
greeted him pleasantly and called him 'Governor.' They received a 
pleasant greeting in return ; Governor Robinson made up a tea-party for 
' Governor ' Stanton and his travelling companion, and it was an- 
nounced that Mr. Stanton would address the citizens in the evening. 

" My impression of Mr. Stanton, derived from some little intercourse 
previous to his speech, was not unpleasant. The impression derived 
from the speech itself was far from gratifying. I happened to be pres- 
ent at the tea-party mentioned above, and as nothing confidential trans- 
pired, and nothing but courtesy and good feeling manifested itself, I 
shall take occasion to report some parts of the conversation to which I 
was a listener. I do this more especially because it presents a brief 
summing up of the positions of two parties in Kansas, and hints con- 



346 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

cerning a third. It will be seen that the discussion was mainly con- 
ducted by Governor Robinson and Mr. Stanton's friend from Lecomp- 
ton, one General McLean, who casually informed us that he led the 
advance guard of the two thousand eight hundred braves who marched 
towards Lawrence some time last summer : 

" McLean — Whenever the Free-State party in Kansas convince me 
that they have an actual majority of the residents of the Territory over 
the National Democracy, I and my friends will be found making prep- 
arations to depart. If the National Democracy — 

" Robinson — We won't dispute about titles. General, unless they 
have an especial significance, but I would like to hear your definition 
of a National Democrat. 

" McLean — A National Democrat is any man from the North or 
South, from the East or West, whose faith is clearly enunciated in the 
Cincinnati platform. 

" Robinson — But I happen to know several men in Kansas answer- 
ing just that description, who declare themselves utterly hostile to 
slavery. These men are mostly new-comers. They say they voted for 
Buchanan for the purpose of making Kansas free, and now they are on 
the ground to contribute still further to that enterprise. What is the 
distinction between these and the Free-State party? 

" Stanton — If you call one party Free-State, General, you must cer- 
tainly call the other pro-slavery. I have found men claiming to be 
Democrats, myself, who intend to vote for Free-State delegates to the 
Constitutional Convention. 

" McLean — That is all very well; but I prefer a name which ap- 
plies equally to all sections of the country — something National! By 
the National Democracy of Kansas, I understand that party which pro- 
poses no interference with the rights of the South. 

" Robinson — But, my dear sir, I propose no interference with the 
rights of the South, and yet I shall object to anybody fastening me to 
the Cincinnati platform. 

" McLean — I think the distinction is plain enough. The National 
Democracy have invited the Free-State men to come to the polls on a 
certain day and determine by vote which party has a majority of the 
actual residents of Kansas. You Free-State men hold a convention and 
resolve that you have four-fifths of the population, and that you woii't 
vote. Now, what sort of consistency is there in this? 

" Robinson — The action of the Topeka Convention was predicated on 
certain facts which have been well known to the ' National Democracy ' 
from the beginning. Firstly, the Free-State men of Kansas have never 
recognized the ' Territorial Legislature,' as some people call it. Who- 
ever else may recognize it or fail to recognize it, the Free-State men 
deny its legal existence. They claim that it is not even a government 



CONSTITUTIONAL ELECTION. 347 

de facto. They do not appeal to its laws nor have dealings with its offi- 
cers. No one pretends to execute these laws, and they exist merely for 
the benefit of the public printer. Consequently, the Free-State men 
see nothing in the proposed election but the old farce with new decora- 
tions and scenery. No law requires them to vote. They will not in- 
terfere with your voting. They have no objection to your doing all the 
voting. In this way you will secure unanimity, and I see no reason 
why the plan should give the ' National Democracy ' a moment's un- 
easiness. Secondly, the law providing for this election takes all power 
out of the hands of the people, after the delegates are elected. It 
thrusts the Constitution into Congress as the work of the people, with- 
out giving the people an opportunity to pronounce upon that work. 
These delegates may frame a constitution infringing the liberty of speech 
and the press. They may decree test oaths as a qualification for voting. 
They may make murder a bailable offense. They may infringe the 
right of the people to assemble together in a peaceable manner to con- 
sult for their common good. They may establish negro slavery, or any 
other kind of slavery, as a permanent institution of Kansas. They may 
take away the right of amending this Constitution from the latest pos- 
terity. We have had specimens of all these things in Kansas legisla- 
tion, and we have no business to infer that the creatures of any legisla- 
tive body will be better than the Legislature itself. The Free-State 
men regard it as indispensable that the entire work of the Constitutional 
Convention be submitted for the approval or disapproval of those whose 
welfare it affects. Thirdly, the Free-State men consider that the whole 
machinery of this election is thrown into the hands of their bitter ene- 
mies, and that no safeguards are interposed for their protection, either 
in the vote itself or the subsequent counting of votes. I need not 
enumerate for this company the provisions of that law in this regard. 
The experience of the Free-State men on former occasions has not been 
such as to imp^ss them favorably with the elective franchise as oper- 
ated by the bogus Legislature. Men who have lived two years in Kan- 
sas understand that the Free-State party have no rights on election day 
which Missourians are bound to respect, and none- which the United 
States Government takes the trouble to ' recognize.' The provision. of 
your law concerning the registration of votes does not prevent the 
registration of all the unemployed residents of western Missouri, nor 
does it require that the actual residents of Kansas shall be registered. 
Your registry being perfected, the result of the election is ascertained 
before the voting commences. After the voting is finished, we have no 
guarantee that the returns will correspond either with the ballots depos- 
ited or the printed list of qualified voters. I am free to confess that I 
doubt the integrity of three-fourths of the officers who will conduct.this 
election. We are solicited, in the face of a two years' experience, 



348 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

which requires no comment from me, to confide everything we hold 
dear as American citizens to the keeping of our worst enemies, and go 
away trusting to their honor, presuming that they have sufficient virtue 
to register none but actual citizens of Kansas, to register all the citizens 
of Kansas, to receive the votes of all the citizens who choose to vote, 
to make the returns according to the votes, even in case such returns 
ruin the business which has afforded them occupation for two years. 
The Free-State men of Kansas are not such idiots. The evidence is 
overwhelming that this election was not intended to ascertain the rela- 
tive strength of parties in Kansas, but to entrap our party, defraud 
them of all their rights, and make a slave State of Kansas. So much 
for the Topeka Convention. How have subsequent events shown the 
propriety of their action? Here are two thousand Missourians regis- 
tered as voters in Douglas County — men whom no citizen of Kansas 
ever heard of except as he met them on some foraging excursion. We 
look over this list for the names of the oldest citizens of Lawrence, and 
they are not to be found. In Quindaro, where I live, public opinion is 
divided on the question whether the census -taker has been there or not. 
Two or three men pretend to have seen him. I haven't, and I doubt 
whether he has been there at all. If he has ever visited that place, it 
was not for the purpose of completing the registry of Leavenworth 
County, The list was published some weeks ago, and our town left 
entirely out of the reckoning. Some of the neglected ones in the town 
of Wyandotte have sent their names to the proper officer, with evidence 
of their citizenship, and he has either refused or neglected to place them 
on the list. 

' ' At Osawatomie, I am informed, three-fourths of the list is made 
up of citizens of the adjoining county in Missouri. At a place thirty or 
forty miles southwest of here the citizens do not know, except by hear- 
say, that there is to be any election. They have never known, from 
the beginning, whether they were enjoying the blessing of a sheriff and 
county judge or not. They don't know whether they have a census- 
taker among them or not, and I should judge they didn't care. These 
are specimens of our territorial job work. To my mind they demon- 
strate that the action of the Topeka Convention was entirely proper, 
and if that Convention was to be held over again, my part in it would 
simply be a repetition of my part in the other. 

" Stanton — But you have an ample remedy for all this alleged fraud, 
in the law creating these officers. Bring me one man who has taken 
the proper steps to have his name registered and been refused, and then 
see what becomes of the officer. Establish that the list of Douglas 
County contains the name of one resident of Missouri, and see how 
rapidly that list is expurgated of the falsehood. The trouble is, you 
Free-State men are not willing to take any steps looking to the correc- 



DISCUSSION CONTINUED. 349 

tion of the evils you complain of. The Executive of this Territory is 
here for the purpose of administering impartial justice, and when you 
have been denied redress in that quarter, I will acknowledge for one 
that there is something radically wrong in the government of Kansas. 

" Robinson — Having determined to take no part in the election, we 
are naturally not solicitous about the purity of the voting lists, or of the 
voters themselves ; but you now offer us a practical impossibility. In 
the first place, the citizens of Quindaro, Lawrence, and Osawatomie are 
men of business. Their time is valuable to them and indispensable to 
their families. They cannot leave their business and go hunting a 
sheriff or a census-taker, particularly if he spends most of his time in 
another State. The gentleman with the census roll was appointed to 
visit them, not they the officer. 

" I have no time to waste in that way, and I presume my neighbors 
will say the same thing. The other proposition, that we show the lists 
to be fraudulent in respect of the names of Missourians, is an utter im- 
possibility. It is an attempt to establish a negative. Mr. Jones Jen- 
kins may be a resident of Westport, Missouri. I may know it, and a 
dozen others may know the same thing. We may establish that Mr. 
Jones Jenkins does live in Westport, Missouri. We then visit twenty 
of the oldest residents of Douglas County, and inquire whether Mr. 
Jenkins has ever resided there. They have never heard of any such 
man in that vicinity. Here we have established that one person bearing 
this name lives in Missouri, and have shown that twenty citizens of 
Douglas County never heard of him in Kansas. Is this legal demon- 
stration? We have not shown that some man bearing this name posi- 
tively does not live somewhere in the county. We have not shown that 
he may not have lived here, and gone East for his family. We have 
not and never can show that he was not here on the day prescribed by 
the law, and that he did not answer every requirement of that law. 
When we multiply this case by two thousand, we appreciate somewhat 
the nature of the job we have undertaken. 

" Stanton — I think. Doctor, you magnify all the difficulties which 
stand in the way of a fair election. Concerning the submission of the 
Constitution to a subsequent vote of the people, I would say that it is 
proposed to make a provision of this sort, and, so far as my influence 
extends, it shall be exerted to bring about a full expression of the popu- 
lar will on the subject of the domestic institutions of the Territory, after 
the work of the convention is complete. 

" Robinson — We do not doubt your good intentions. Governor, in 
this, as in other matters ; but we very gravely doubt the extent of your 
power. Several governors of Kansas have been greatly surprised to 
find how short a distance their influence extends. I believe that the 
right of calling out the militia has been placed in the hands of county 



350 THE KANSAS CONFLICT, 

sheriffs. You will doubtless regard this a very great infringement on 
the privileges of the Executive. 

" Stanton — Oh, you must be mistaken. No Legislature, no sheriff, 
will undertake to call out the militia while I hold the ofhce of Governor. 
Ridiculous ! 

" McLean — But they will when the occasion comes. It was found 
necessary on the part of the Legislature to reserve this right. 

" Stanton — Reserve ! No such right ever belonged to any Legisla- 
ture under the sun. Nonsense! 

" McLean — Nonsense or not, we have the right of calling out mili- 
tia, and intend to exercise it whenever we find it necessary; that's all! 

" Stanton — Oh, you are altogether mistaken, etc. 

" I need not follow this pleasant little expression of views any fur- 
ther. Our party adjourned to the Cincinnati House and listened to 
Mr. Stanton's speech. I have already made this letter longer than I 
had intended. The conversation above reported is eminently suggestive, 
and I think speaks for itself. If it should meet the eyes of any of the 
participants, they will recognize its correctness in all essential particu- 
lars ; and if I have set down aught in malice, I trust the Tribune will 
be open for the amplest correction to the injured party. Messrs. Stan- 
ton and McLean having expressed their views publicly and without re- 
serve in the streets of Lawrence, both before and after this dialogue, it 
will not be deemed any breach of confidence that some portion of those 
views should take on the illumination of the types. 

" Occident." 

The next morning after Secretary Stanton's speech at 
Lawrence, several citizens presented him with a written prop- 
osition, providing, first, " that two persons shall be selected 
in each township or district to correct the registry list, one 
by the pro-slavery and one by the Free-State party, who 
shall proceed in company to take the census and register all 
legal voters, and the probate judges shall correct the first 
lists, and the apportionment of delegates shall be made ac- 
cording to the returns thus made. 

" Second, four judges shall be selected for each voting pre- 
cinct, two of the pro-slavery and two of the Free-State party, 
and the names of three of said judges shall be required for 
a valid certificate of election to a seat in the convention." 
To this proposition Mr. Stanton made a lengthy reply, dis- 
claiming any power over the probate judges and judges of 



ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR WALKER. 351 

election. He, however, said, if left to him, he would ap- 
point one Free-State National Democrat, one pro-slavery 
National Democrat, and one Republican. This was fair 
enough so far as judges were concerned, but even this 
power he could not exercise, and hence the Free-State men 
wholly ignored the election. 

Governor Walker reached Kansas in May, stopping at 
Leavenworth, where, instead of a speech, he had $250 
worth of hquors distributed among the people in the street. 
He visited Lawrence on the 26th, and attended a meeting 
in company with Senator Henry Wilson, Rev. John Pierpont 
and Dr. Samuel Howe of Massachusetts. He pledged the 
enforcement of the territorial laws, but said the Lecompton 
Constitution when framed should be submitted to a fair vote 
of the people for adoption or rejection. The meeting was 
held in the Unitarian church, and continued till a late hour. 
Judge Conway presiding. Besides the Governor, Henry 
Wilson, Dr. Pierpont, Daniel Foster, Conway, Phillips, and 
Robinson were called out. The provisions for the election 
for the delegates to the Lecompton Constitutional Conven- 
tion were dwelt upon at length, and Governor Walker had 
an opportunity to learn something of that matter, as well as 
of the spirit of the people. 

Governor Walker issued a lengthy address to the people, 
which, as usual with such documents in Kansas, gave satis- 
faction to neither party. The Free-State men were disgusted 
with his threats to enforce the territorial usurpation, and he 
gave too many promises of fairness to the " rebels " to suit 
the Slave-State party. The Richmond South is a sample of 
Southern criticism. It says : 

" We intend no imputation upon the Democracy when we affirm 
that, with individual exceptions, all parties in the North desire the ad- 
mission of Kansas as a free State. It is morally impossible to hope for 
any other result. 

" But we do reproach and denounce the Hon. Robert J. Walker, 
for that, being the chief Executive Magistrate in the Territory, and 
bound by every consideration of honor and duty to observe a strict 



352 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

neutrality between the contending interests, he openly allies himself 
with the anti-slavery faction, and employs all the influence of his posi- 
tion to deliver Kansas into the power of the Free-State party. 

" Do we accuse him unjustly? Not unless it be impossible to con- 
vict him of the charge on the evidence of his own official declarations. 
No candid person can read his inaugural address and resist the conclu- 
sion that he goes out to Kansas with the deliberate design of wresting 
the Territory from the power of the South. It is idle to answer that 
his policy is opposed by the Black Republican party. The struggle 
between Walker and Robinson is not upon the issue of slavery or no 
slavery ; it is a competition for the glory of converting Kansas into a 
free State. Of course the Black Republicans will fight any plan which 
threatens to rob them of the conquest. 

" Under any circumstances, the loss of Kansas would be a grievous 
calamity for the South ; but to have it snatched from our grasp by the 
stealthy manipulation of a politician who affects a frank and honest pur- 
pose is an insult and a wrong which we cannot bear with patience." 

The State Legislature met on the 9th of June, in accord- 
ance with the adjournment from its regular session in Janu- 
ary, and with the Legislature came a mass meeting of the 
citizens. As the Government would expire with this Legis- 
lature unless an election law should be enacted and an elec- 
tion held for State officers and members of a new Legis- 
latiu-e, unusual efforts were made to induce the members to 
attend the session. A circular letter, signed by many lead- 
ing citizens, was sent to all the members of the Senate and 
House, urging them to be present. But when the day ar- 
rived no quorum appeared. It required much skill to get a 
quorum, and no legal quorum could be secured by any de- 
vice known to parliamentary proceedings. Members were 
sent for in hot haste, but still no quorum. As Governor 
Walker was watching with eagle eye, and ardently praying 
for the Topeka Government to fail, it was deemed important 
that the real condition should be kept from his knowledge. 
It was thought that if Governor Walker could be made to 
believe that the Topeka Government was in a condition to 
become a live Government, should he fail to give the people 
a fair election, either for or against the Lecompton Consti- 



STATE LEGISLATURE. 353 

tution, or for a Territorial Legislature, he would be more 
likely to do his duty regarding those elections. Enough had 
been learned of the Governor to know that he feared nothing 
so much as this Topeka State Government. Hence he must 
be kept in ignorance of the strait to which it was reduced. 
Among the devices resorted to in order to proctu^e a quorum, 
was providing impromptu elections. William A. PhilUps 
was thus elected to the House to fill a vacancy. William 
Hutchinson was sent to Douglas County to secure the at- 
tendance of Senator B. W. Miller. When he found the 
senator had just died, he called an election immediately, 
returned to Topeka the next day, and was duly sworn in as 
senator. In this way, and by declaring several vacancies, 
a nominal quorum was secured. Steps were taken to com- 
plete the organization of the Government, by providing for 
taking the census, making an apportionment, and for an 
election of State officers and a Legislature, to be held on 
the first Monday in August. 

The promises of Walker and Stanton that the territorial 
ballot-boxes should be restored to the people had produced 
a marked effect upon the Free-State men ; and being tired 
of living without law, and having but little hope of relief 
through admission to the Union under the Topeka Constitu- 
tion, many were ready to make an effort to get possession 
of the Territorial Legislature at the election to be held in 
October, and were accordingly indifferent to the fate of the 
State Government. Senator Douglas had exposed the ma- 
nipulations of Lane to such an extent, convicting him of 
lying and forgery with reference to the Topeka Constitution, 
that even Repubhcan senators would have nothing to do 
with that document ; and Free-State men well posted had 
no hope of admission to the Union under it, although it had 
passed the House of Representatives. Notwithstanding all 
this, some men were loud in their demands that this Govern- 
ment should be set in motion at all hazards. Perhaps the 
most bitter enemies Robinson ever had he made by de- 
23 



354- THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

daring such a move to be, under the circumstances, in- 
sane. 

The taking of the census had a double purpose : one was 
to answer the demand of the Constitution that an apportion- 
ment for members of the Legislature might be made, and 
another that proof might be furnished of illegal voting at the 
territorial election, which was to be held without an accu- 
rate census. Senator Wilson appreciated the importance of 
this census, and promised Robinson that he would send a 
man with sufficient funds to defray the expenses. Accord- 
ingly Hon. T. J. Marsh, ex-Treasurer of the State of Massa- 
chusetts, appeared in due time and paid all the census bills, 
as audited and approved by the State Governor. 

At the mass convention, held at the time of the meet- 
ing of the Legislature, resolutions were adopted repeating 
the former denunciations of the territorial usurpation and 
strongly adhering to the Topeka Constitution. 

Judge Conway dissented from the report of the committee 
on resolutions, and offered as a substitute one proposing, 
while professedly not intending to resort to force, that the 
people should " universally accept the State Government as 
their only rightful government." That they "should look 
to it exclusively to extend protection to individual rights and 
regulate the relations of society * * * ^q |.]^g ^-^^ ^}-,^^ 
the aforesaid government shall become the living govern- 
ment of the community." Also, his resolutions contemplated 
the enactment of laws sufficient to meet the wants of the 
people in every department of life. This substitute was sup- 
ported by Conway, W. A. Phillips, C. F. W. Leonhardt, and 
W. F. M. Arney. 

It was not adopted by the convention. The people had 
adopted the Topeka Constitution because they had been de- 
prived of the territorial law-making power by invasion and 
fraud, not because it was intrinsically better for them than 
that form of government ; and now, as there was a prospect 
of recovering what had been stolen, they were disposed to 



FREE-STATE CONVENTIONS. 355 

await the result of the territorial election so soon to be 
held. In fact, there was no alternative, as it was impossible 
to procure a legal quorum of the Legislature or pass a legal 
enactment of any kind. All did not know this, but the State 
Governor knew it, and his aim was to impress upon the ter- 
ritorial Governor the importance of securing to the people 
an honest election. If he should do that he would have 
nothing to fear from the State Government, otherwise there 
might be serious trouble. Robinson had satisfied himself, 
by frequent interviews and otherwise, that Walker and Stan- 
ton intended to act in good faith towards the people, and he 
was disposed to throw no obstacle in their way, but, on the 
contrary, give them what aid he could in carrying out their 
pledges. 

Another convention was held at Topeka, July 15th and 
1 6th, of which General Lane was chairman. This conven- 
tion adopted substantially the same resolutions as the pre- 
vious one, except the following : 

" Whereas, Governor Walker, in his speech at Topeka, as reported 
in the A'ansas Statesma7i of June 9th, holds the following language : 
' In October next, not under the act of the late Territorial Legislature, 
but under the laws of Congress, you, the whole people of Kansas, 
have a right to elect a delegate to Congress, and to elect a Territorial 
Legislature ; ' and 

" Whereas, Governor Walker has, on various occasions, used simi- 
lar language ; and 

" Whereas, Under the above decision ' the whole people of Kansas ' 
may participate in an election for delegate for Congress and for mem- 
bers of the Territorial Legislature, without recognizing the validity of 
a bogus Legislature, imposed upon them by fraud and by force ; there- 
fore, 

' ' Resolved, That we recommend to the people of Kansas that they 
assemble in mass convention at Grasshopper Falls on the last Wednes- 
day in August, to take such action as may be necessary with regard to 
that election." 

At this convention M. J. Parrott was nominated for rep- 
resentative to Congress. 

Judge Conway offered this resolution, which was adopted : 



356 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" Whereas, we have reliable information that preparations are being 
made in some parts of the State of Missouri to control the result of the 
coming elections in Kansas ; therefore be it 

" Resolved, That General James H. Lane be appointed by this con- 
vention, and authorized to organize the people in the several districts, 
to protect the ballot-boxes at the approaching elections in Kansas." 

Of course there was no " reliable " information of pro- 
posed interference with any election favored by Judge Con- 
way or Lane, as both these gentlemen opposed taking part 
in the territorial election of a Legislature, and no Missou- 
rian would interfere with the election under the State 
auspices. But it served to give employment to Lane and 
furnish an excuse to send East for money, which was 
promptly done, two messengers being sent for that purpose. 
Had both Conway and Lane favored the territorial election, 
they well knew that no Kansas troops outside of regular mili- 
tia would be needed, as Governor Walker had taken upon 
himself the responsibility for that election, and had plenty of 
United States troops to protect the polls. These he did 
station at some places, although unnecessary, as no invasion 
was longer needed. The pro-slavery men had the "return- 
ing boards," and voters from Missouri or elsewhere were 
unnecessary, as was proven when the returns were sent in to 
the Governor. 

The time intervening between this convention of the 15th 
of July and the Grasshopper Falls Convention, the last 
Wednesday in August, was improved by Lane and Conway 
in opposing the territorial election, but without avail. When 
that convention met it was nearly a unit for voting, although 
Conway made a speech against it. Lane, seeing the senti- 
ment, changed front and favored the election, although op- 
posing it in committee. 

W. A. Phillips offered the following resolution, which was 
referred to the committee, but never acted upon by the con- 
vention : 

"Resolved, That should any power, legislative or otherwise, be 
obtained by any force of Free-State men, or Free-State votes, at the 



GRASSHOPPER FALLS CONVENTION. 357 

proceeding called an election in October next, this convention resolves 
that such power shall be used only for the destruction of usurpation, 
that a territorial Government shall not be perpetuated, but that the 
Government under the Topeka Constitution is the only legitimate Gov- 
ernment." 

Andreas, in his "History," page 126, says: 

" Colonel Lane, who at the Topeka Convention held in May had 
declared his radical opposition to any participation in the election, had 
gradually grown reticent and considerate, and now came fully over to 
the other side." 

He did not come over, however, till he reached the con- 
vention, as, on his way there, he predicted that all who 
favored voting, referring to Smith, Robinson, and others, 
would be buried so deep the resurrection would fail to reach 
them. 

Andreas further says, same page : 

" Governor Robinson defined his position, which had doubtless come 
to be that of a large majority of the Free-State party. In his speech 
favoring the resolutions, he said : ' We started out on the Topeka Con- 
stitution, and I shall work under it ; but here is a battery all the time 
at Lecompton playing upon us. Let us take the battery and use it for 
our own benefit, without defining the use we shall put it to, and thus 
avoid side issues in every county in the Territory. If we get the bat- 
tery and spike it so it cannot be used against us, we shall have accom- 
plished a purpose. I do not feel that there will be any backing down 
in doing so. I am more hopeful than some, and not quite so hopeful 
as others ; but I have no doubt we shall be triumphant. From the 
■census returns I am satisfied there is not a district in the Territory in 
which we have not a large majority of voters. If we are defeated by 
fraud, we shall be in a position to show up the fraud. It has been said 
that I was always opposed to this movement. Such is not the case. I 
have always been in favor of voting with the least show of success in 
our favor." 

Parrott was nominated for territorial delegate to Con- 
gress, and comparative harmony in the ranks was secured. 

Lane's military exploits during the summer were only 
eclipsed by Governor Walker's when he came against Law- 
rence with his United States troops. He made a great 



358 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

flourish of trumpets and assumed airs of as much importance 
as he would if the destiny of nations depended upon his 
action. As this was to be a war without an enemy, there 
would be no danger to life or limb, neither would "breast- 
works " have to be erected on the Nebraska hne to cause 
frequent visits from the General-in-Chief. E. B. Whitman 
and J. B. Abbott went East for the sinews of war, but from 
all accounts had poor success. Unfortunately for the suc- 
cess of this begging expedition. Senator Wilson, Horace 
^^'hite, and others had recently visited Kansas, and knew 
very well that there was no more occasion for this military 
demonstration than there would be at an election in Massa- 
chusetts. 

In Redpath's " Life of Brown," he quotes one of Brown's 
sons as saying, September 30, 1857, that " efforts were made 
to raise a fund to send cannon and arms to Lane ; " and 
adds that they "proved a failure." Mr. Whitman reported 
poor success in his efforts. But the most farcical of all is 
the great apparent effort to get John Brown with his two 
hundred Sharp's carbines from Tabor, Iowa, into Kansas. 
As is now well known, John Brown was already preparing 
for his Virginia raid ; had ordered his pikes, sent for his men, 
and had a drill-master already at work. In A. Wattles' testi- 
mony before the Senate Harper's Ferry Investigating Com- 
mittee, on page 221, is a letter from Brown to Wattles, dated 
June 3, 1857, in which he says: 

" There are some half dozen men I want a visit from at Tabor, Iowa, 
to come off in the most qniet "way, viz. : Daniel Foster, late of Boston, 
Massachusetts ; Holmes, Frazer, a Mr. Hill, and William David, on 
Little Ottawa Creek ; a Mr. Cochran, on Potawatomie Creek ; or I 
would like equally well to see Dr. UpdegrafT and S. H. Wright of 
Osawatomie ; or William Phillips, or Conway, or your honor. I have 
some very important matters to confer with some of you about. Let 
there be no words about it." 

Colonel Hugh Forbes was engaged by Brown in March 
or April, 1857, to drill men for the work in hand, and, ac- 



JOHN BROWN AND TERRITORIAL ELECTION. 359 

cording to Redpath's " Life of Brown," this work was to be 
in Virginia or Maryland. Besides, in a letter to Wattles, 
dated April 8, 1857, Brown writes, "I bless God that He 
has not left the Free-State men of Kansas to pollute them- 
selves by the foul and loathsome embrace of the old rotten 

." This old monster was the territorial Government. 

Was it likely a man with such sentiments would aid in an 
election under such a Government? In a letter to E. B. 
Whitman, dated October 5, 1857, he calls this election, that 
Lane was proposing to protect, " bogus." How much sin- 
cerity was there in this war movement ? 

Richard Realf, the Secretary of State of John Brown's 
new Republic, set up in Canada, and moved over to Harper's 
Ferry, wrote January 30, i860, as follows about Brown's 
position : 

" Nor was Brown himself, nor any of his coadjutors, committed to 
the Repubhcan creed. Henry "Wilson, in 1857, advised that party to 
secure the Legislature by voting under the laws of the Territorial Legis- 
lature. Not one of Brown's origmal party voted. Some of us were 
at the time correspondents of the Eastern press, and in the interim be- 
tween the Grasshopper Falls convention, at which it was decided to 
vote, and the day of election, we opposed the action of the party in 
every possible way, by letters, speeches, and in every available manner, 
for which we were denounced as abolitionists by the leading Republican 
journal of the Territory." 

It is evident from the correspondence between these great 
" Generals," Lane and Brown, that Lane wanted to get the 
arms in Brown's possession at Tabor, Iowa; and Brown 
wanted to get all the money he could out of Whitman and 
others for his work in Virginia. It will be seen by the let- 
ters which follow that the territorial election was a mere pre- 
text, as Lane was as desirous of getting the munitions of 
war after that election as before. The pretense that Brown 
wanted very much to get to Kansas is in keeping with his 
whole career while preparing for his Virginia raid. He al- 
ways begged for money and supplies on a pretense of want- 
ing them for Kansas, while he intended to use them else- 



360 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

where. The following letters were exchanged by the par- 
ties. 

From J. H. Lane, Lawrence, September 7, 1857, as fol- 
lows: 

" Sir: We are earnestly engaged in perfecting an organization for 
the protection of the ballot-box at the October election (first Monday). 
Whitman and Abbott have been East after money and arms for a month 
past. They write encouragingly, and will be back in a few days. We 
want all the materials you have. I see no objection to your coming to 
Kansas publicly. I can furnish you just such a force as you may deem 
necessary for your protection here, and after your arrival. I went up 
to see you, but failed. 

" Now what is wanted is this — write me concisely what transporta- 
tion you require, how much money, and the number of men to escort 
you into the Territory safely, and if you desire it I would come up with 
them. 

" Yours respectfully, 

"J. H. Lane. 

"To Captain John Brown, Tabor, Iowa.'''' 



" Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, September 16, 1857. 
" General J. H. Lane: 

" My Dear Sir: Your favor of the 7th instant is received. I had 
previously written to you expressive of my strong desire to see you. I 
suppose you have my letter before this. As to the job of work you in- 
quire about,- 1 suppose that three good teams, with well-covered wagons, 
and ten really ingenious, industrious men {not gassy), with about $150 
in cash, could bring it about in the course of eight or ten days. 
" Very respectfully, your friend, 

"John Brown." 

"Falls City, Nebraska, September 29, 1857. 
"Dear General: I send you Mr. Jamison, Quartermaster-Gen- 
eral, Second Division, to assist you in getting your articles into Kansas 
in time. Mr. Whitman wrote us he would be at Wyandotte yesterday, 
one week ago — that he was supplied with the things — but he had not 
arrived when I left. It is all important to Kansas that your things 
should be in at the earliest possible moment — that you should be much 
nearer at hand than you are. I send you all the money I have, $50, 
and General Jamison has some more. We want every gun, and all the 
ammunition. I do not know that we will have to use them, but I do 



CORRESPONDENCE OF LANE AND BROWN. 36 1 

know we should be prepared. I send you ten true men. You can rely 

upon General . What he tells you comes from me. 

" Yours ever, 

"J. H. Lane. 
'^To General John Brozvn, Tabor, Iowa.'''' 

" Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, September 30, 1857. 
' ' General James H. Lane : 

" My Dear Sir: Your favor from Falls City by Mr. Jamison is 
just received, also $50 sent by him, which I also return by same hand, 
as I find it will be next to impossible in my poor state of health to go 
through on such short notice, four days only remaining to get ready, 
load up, and go through. I think, considering all the uncertainties of 
the case, want of teams, etc., that I should do wrong to set out. I am 
disappointed in the extreme. 

" Very respectfully, your friend, 

" John Brown." 

"Tabor, Iowa, October 5, 1857. 

" My Dear Sir: Please send me, by Mr. Charles P. Tidd, what 
money you have for me, not paper. He is the second man I have sent 
in order to get the means of taking me through. General Lane sent a 
man who got here without any team, with but fifty dollars of Lane's 
money, as he said, which I returned to him, and wanted me to start 
right off, with only four days' time to load up and drive through before 
this bogus election day, which my state of health and the very wet 
weather rendered it impossible to do in time, and I did not think it 
right to start from here under such circumstances. Do try to make me 
up the money all in good shape before Mr. Tidd returns, and also write 
me everything you know about the aspect of things in Kansas. Please 
furnish Mr. Tidd with a horse to take him to Osawatomie, and greatly 
oblige me. The fifty dollars Lane sent was only about enough to pay 
up my board bill here, with all I had on hand. I need not say my dis- 
appointments have been extreme. Your friend, 

" John Brown. 

"To £. B. Whitman:'' 

" P.S. — Before any teams are now sent I want to hear further from 
Kansas. Yours respectfully, 

"John Brown." 

From E. B. Whitman, dated Lawrence, October 24, 1857, 
and indorsed as having been received at Tabor, November 
I St, as follows : 



362 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" My Dear Friend ; Your two first messengers are sick at Tecum- 
seh. I helped them to start back, with the information that you shoukl 
soon hear from me, but they were taken sick on their way. Mr. Tidd 
has been waiting some time for me to receive remittances from the East, 
but as the crisis approaches I feel in a hurry to get him off. You are 
wanted here a week from Tuesday. I will wait no longer, but have 
raised on my personal responsibility $150. General Lane will send 
teams from Falls City, so that you may get your guns all in. Leave 
none behind if you can help it. Come direct to this place. See me be- 
fore you make any disposition of your plunder, except to keep it safe. 
Make the Tabor people wait for what you owe them. They must. 
Make the money I send answer to get here, and I hope by that time to 
have more for you. Mr. Tidd will explain all. 

" Very truly yours, 

"E. B. Whitman." 

From J. H. Lane, Falls City, October 30, 1857, as follows : 

" Dear Sir : By great sacrifice we have raised and send you by Dr. 
Tidd $150. I trust this money will be used to get the guns to Kansas, 
or as near as possible. If you will get them to this point, we will try 
to get them on in some way. The probability is Kansas will never 
need the guns. One thing is certain, if they are to do her any good, it 
will be in the next few days. Let nothing interfere in bringing them 
on. Yours, 

"J. H. Lane." 

The last letters of Lane and Whitman were after the elec- 
tion, and yet they are as urgent for the arms as any before 
that event. 

It will be seen that Lane was at Falls City, Nebraska, on 
September 29th, six days before the election, and must have 
taken a deep interest in that event. Also he was in Ne- 
braska October 30th. Whether the fortifications he threw 
up along the territorial line in 1856 needed repairing, or 
new ones had to be made, does not appear. 

While this correspondence was in progress between " Gen- 
eral " Lane and " General " Brown, the election of the Terri- 
torial Legislature came off. There was no invasion or illegal 
voting of consequence, but illegal returns were made. The 
small village of Kickapoo sent in 500 votes ; McGee County, 



OXFORD FRAUD. 363 

where there were no legal voters, returned over 1200 votes; 
and Oxford, a hamlet of six houses on the east line of the 
Territory, sent up 1628 votes. These fictitious returns would, 
if counted, give the Legislature to the pro-slavery party. 
What would be done ? All parties had accepted the pledge 
of Governor Walker that no fraud should be tolerated, and 
now all parties demanded the fulfilment of his pledges. 
That he would be inclined to favor his own party and re- 
cover the confidence of the South which his inaugural had 
lost him seemed Hkely. Besides, he had become exceedingly 
bitter on account of the opposition and ridicule of Free- 
State orators and papers. There was apparent hesitation as 
to his course, and he was waited upon by all parties with 
demands for prompt and decisive action. The conserva- 
tives, especially, would brook no shortcoming. G W. 
Brown, editor of the Herald of Freedom, had defended the 
Governor in his paper till now, and he waited upon Gov- 
ernor Walker in his office and warned him that if he faltered 
in his duty now his paper would henceforth join the cry 
against him. 

The Governor of the State organization, who had relied upon 
personal as well as public pledges, and had discouraged radi- 
cal measures on account of these pledges, gave notice that 
should the territorial Governor fail to do his whole duty there 
would henceforth be no conservative party in Kansas, and 
the machinery of the State Government might be put in 
order at once. Governor Walker was so afraid this would 
be done during the summer that he had brought the United 
States troops to Lawrence because that town had organized 
for mutual assistance in preserving order, abating nuisances, 
and the like. His excuse was, that should all the towns of 
the Territory thus organize independently of the territorial 
Government, it would become supplanted entirely, and the 
State Government would be established instead. All this 
had been argued at the convention in June at Topeka by 
Conway, Phillips, Amey, and others. In fact it was a most 



364 THE KANSAS CONFLICT, 

simple process, that all could understand, and it was held in 
abeyance solely for the purpose of avoiding friction, and be- 
cause Governor Walker had assured the people they should 
have their rights through this territorial election. 

Governor Walker and Secretary Stanton — although they 
found sufificient cause for rejecting the returns from Oxford 
on their face, as there was no evidence the judges of elec- 
tion took the prescribed oath, or that the paper was one of 
the two poll-lists required by law — chose to visit Oxford 
that they might learn from personal inspection the number 
of actual voters in the neighborhood or county. They be- 
came satisfied the returns were simulated and fictitious, and 
like honorable men refused to count the Oxford vote. This 
was one of the most important acts in the whole struggle. 
Had this Oxford vote been counted, the Legislatiu-e would 
have been given to the Slave-State men, and no power on 
earth could have quieted the people. They had submitted 
to the invasion of the 30th of March, 1855, simply because 
they were few in number, unarmed and unorganized. Be- 
sides, the Free-State majority at that time was small ; but 
now that majority was as twenty to one, as estimated by the 
Herald of Freedom, after taking the State census, and the 
people were comparatively well armed. While the Federal 
Government might, and probably would, have broken down 
a formal State Government, the people could and would 
have made it impossible for any usurpation to occupy the 
soil of Kansas. The result might have been no active gov- 
ernment from any source, but the Free-State men could 
afford to occupy that position as long as the Federal Ad- 
ministration could afford to have them. 

Should a President of the United States be elected by the 
people and have but one majority, every member of his 
party would claim that the election was due to his vote, 
and the spoils would be demanded accordingly. So in this 
case, every Free-State man in Kansas was loud in his de- 
mands for an honest count, and there were dire threatenings 



WHY OXFORD WAS REJECTED. 365 

from every quarter ; and many are the persons who claim 
to have influenced the Governor to do his duty. The 
friends of Lane claim that, while he did not go near the 
Governor, it was his pawing the earth, beating the air and 
bellowing, as usual, like a bull of Bashan, that frightened the 
Governor. Prominent men like Colonel Eldridge, Deitzler, 
Allen, Duncans, and other conservative men, were active 
and influential ; G. W. Brown, also, was in a position to 
bring a stronger influence than any other single man ; and 
the radicals who were clamorous for setting the State Gov- 
ernment in operation regardless of consequences had their 
influence. But, giving full credit to all parties, individually 
and collectively, the " old blood-stained banner," the Topeka 
Government, was indispensable. As has been said, the Ad- 
ministration hated this movement with a perfect hatred, as 
any settlement of the difificulties through this instrumentality 
would be a political defeat and humiliation of the Demo- 
cratic party. Any other way out might be tolerated, but 
this never. Governor Walker saw clearly that there were 
men enough, and brains enough, in the State movement to 
" thwart, baffle, and circumvent " till the Democratic party 
should be utterly ruined, if he did not redeem his pledges 
relative to this territorial election. That it was the State 
movement he feared is evident from his proclamation throw- 
ing out the Oxford votes. After giving his argument against 
the votes he says : 

" In view of the condition of affairs in Kansas for several years past, 
of the efforts so long made to put in operation here a revolutionary 
government, and of the facts that this effort was suspended under the 
belief that the political difficulties of this Territory might at length be 
fairly adjusted at the polls ; if that adjustment should now be defeated 
and the people deprived of their rightful power under the laws of Con- 
gress by fictitious returns of votes never given, it is our solemn con- 
viction that the pacification of Kansas through the exercise of the 
elective franchise would become impracticable, and that civil war would 
immediately be recommenced in this Territory, extending, we fear, to 
adjacent States and subjecting the Government of the Union to immi- 
nent peril." 



366 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

At an Old Settler's meeting at Bismarck Grove, Septem- 
ber 2, 1884, Hon. F. P. Stanton in his speech said: 

" Very soon after he came to the Territory, Governor Walker went 
out among the people and made addresses in several places, in which 
he urged the abandonment of the Topeka movement, and earnestly solic- 
ited them to go to the polls in the October elections and assert their 
supremacy in the State Constitution. President Buchanan was pledged 
to the policy of submitting the Constitution to the vote of the people for 
ratification or rejection. Governor Walker did not hesitate to promise 
all his influence in favor of the same policy, and solemnly pledged him- 
self to oppose any constitution not so submitted. At the Free-State 
Convention at Topeka, on the 9th of June, 1857, being called out by 
the people at his lodgings there, he gave these assurances in the most 
solemn and explicit manner, at the same time repeating his declaration 
that the territorial Government, with the aid of the army of the United 
States, if necessary, would maintain peace at the polls, secure a full op- 
portunity for every citizen to vote, and prevent and repudiate every fraud 
or wrong which it was possible to resist or remedy by the executive 
authority. 

" I was not in the counsels of the Free-State party, and knew their 
designs only through their public avowals. It was well understood, I 
believe, that they were divided in opinion. One party in the conven- 
tion, under the lead of General J. H. Lane, was in favor of extreme and 
violent measures, and proposed to put the Topeka Government into im- 
mediate operation ; the other was understood to be headed by Governor 
Charles Robinson, and to advise a more moderate and rational line of 
policy, being willing so far to confide in our pledges as to try their 
strength at the polls in the October elections. There was a bitter con- 
test between these two sections of the Free-State party, and, according 
to our information, there was imminent danger that the Lane party 
would prevail. Such at least were the intimations given out to the 
public, and I had no doubt at the time that they were substantially 
true ; but if they were not, then it remains for those who were inside 
the Free-State movement to show that these public outgivings were not 
sincere, and to explain the real intentions of the parties concerned. 

" But, at any rate, eventually the counsels of the moderate men pre- 
vailed. The extremists were withheld from the execution of their dan- 
gerous designs, and the masses of the Free-State party were induced to 
participate in the October elections, and thus to get legal control of the 
territorial Government, instead of embarking in a rebellion against the 
United States. What was the result of this policy of wisdom and mod- 
eration, I have already shown. By the rejection of the Oxford frauds 
the majority of the people were installed in their rightful supremacy in 



HON. F. P. Stanton's statement. 367 

the Territory. By the election of the 4th of January, authorized by the 
law passed at the extra session of the Legislature, you demonstrated 
that the Lecompton Constitution was not the creation of the people. 
You passed laws to punish frauds and false returns at the elections, and 
thereby drove from the Territory John Calhoun and his dishonest coad- 
jutors, who had sought to pollute the sources of political power and to 
maintain the usurpations of a corrupt minority. You placed Mr. 
Buchanan and his Administration, and all those Democrats who sup- 
ported them, in the wrong. And thus placing them in the wrong be- 
fore the eyes of the whole world, you were enabled to defeat them and 
break them up. And finally, you had the great triumph of establishing 
your own Topeka Constitution, substantially, according to your own will. 

" Now, suppose that different counsels had prevailed at Topeka in 
the summer of 1857 — suppose the extreme men had succeeded in per- 
suading the majority to set up the Topeka State Government in rebellion 
against the Government of the United States. Instead of placing Mr. 
Buchanan in the wrong, you would have been in the wrong yourselves. 
Instead of dividing the Democratic party on the Lecompton question 
and finally breaking them to pieces, you would have consolidated them 
on the question of sustaining the Federal Government, in support of 
the laws, against its rebellious citizens. In the midst of conflict and 
civil war, there would probably have been no frauds at Oxford and no 
exposure of the methods adopted by your opponents, because violence 
would have taken the place of fraud, and that violence justified by your 
own fatal example. It is impossible to conjecture exactly what would 
have been the course of events. But the whole history of the Territory 
would have been altered and its destiny materially modified. The Le- 
compton Constitution would probably have been adopted, and Mr. 
Buchanan succeeded by another Democratic President. In the course 
of time you would, no doubt, have moulded the Constitution to the will 
of the majority; but the obstacles would have been great and your 
progress would have been slow and with feeble paces compared to those 
rapid strides by which you have reached your present magnificent posi- 
tion. I do not for a moment suppose that slavery could have been very 
long continued under any circumstances ; but the process of destroying 
it might have been much more prolonged and difficult, and your impli- 
cation in it might have been much more disastrous and destructive to 
all your interests. 

"Allow me to say here, that, in my judgment. Governor Walker has 
never received the full measure of applause which he deserved for his 
efforts to conciliate the people, and his success in bringing them to a 
trial of their strength in the territorial elections. This was the true 
exodus out of the wilderness of your troubles. It was the policy of 
true wisdom and exalted patriotism. You met him half way, and not- 



368 THE KANSAS CONFLICT, 

withstanding his forced resignation as Governor, this policy which he 
had inaugurated was carried out successfully, and triumphed in the end. 

" Mr. Blaine, in his recent history of ' Twenty Years in Congress,' 
sums up the result of Governor Walker's administration in Kansas with 
the simple but emphatic declaration that he 'failed.' But, I must insist, 
it was no failure. Mr. Buchanan deserted him, and left him the alter- 
native of coming back here to be dismissed, as I was, or of resigning 
the position which he could no longer hold with honor. But, in spite 
of all this, by your co-operation and the wise course of moderation 
which you pursued, he had prepared the way for that result which 
brought merited rebuke to Mr. Buchanan and defeat to the bad schemes 
he sought to promote. The failure was Buchanan's, and not Walker's. 
The triumph was yours ; but you will not fail to do liberal justice to the 
memory of the man who was the author of the policy which finally pre- 
vailed, but who was not permitted to enjoy the fruits of his patriotic 
exertions. It was his fortune, as it was mine, to stand on the eminence 
of truth and right from which he could see the promised land ; but that 
was all. 

" You alone, ye men of iron, worthy fathers of this great State, 
pioneers and heroes in the times that tried men's souls, you alone had 
the privilege of crossing the Jordan that intervened, and entering this 
goodly land of liberty. May it continue forever to blossom like the 
rose, and may it never cease to flow with milk and honey." 



CHAPTER XV, 

LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. LEAVENWORTH CONSTITUTION. 

ULTRA RADICALS. 

When the Territorial Legislature was secured, the prin- 
cipal battery of the enemy had been captured and they had 
but one hope left, namely, to get admitted to the Union 
under the Lecompton Constitution. How should that hope 
be frustrated "? The convention for drafting their constitu- 
tion had adjourned from September 7th till October 19th. 
One party, the voting party, said, let the convention meet, 
as it had a right to do, and adopt a constitution, and then 
vote the constitution down. If, as was feared, no fair op- 
portunity were given for such vote by the convention, then 
let the Legislature provide the opportunity, which it would 
have the power and disposition to do, either at a called ses- 
sion by the acting governor or at the regular session on the 
4th of January, 1858. Another party, headed by Lane, 
said make war upon the convention and prevent the making 
of the constitution. Possibly this was in contemplation by 
Conway when he presented his resolution to the convention 
in July. And this may also explain the urgent request to 
" General " John Brown at Tabor before and after the ter- 
ritorial election. Be this as it may, as the time approached 
for the meeting of the convention, Lane took the war-path 
and gathered his forces. This was done under cover, and 
probably in the main through the secret order of Danites, as 
but few, if any, knew of his movements outside of the order 
till he was ready to strike his blow. As Robinson was ab- 
sent from Lawrence when this blow was to be struck, a state- 
24 



370 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



ment made by Dr. G. W. Brown, who was then editor of 
the Hei-ald of Freedo7n, the first Free-State paper pubhshed 
in Kansas, is quoted from his " Reminiscences of Governor 
Walker," as follows : 

" It is remembered that, on the l6th of July, General Lane was in- 
structed to organize the military forces in Kansas ' for the protection 
of the ballot-box.' But this was not the source of his authority. A 
secret order was instituted by Lane, ostensibly to oppose the aggres- 
sions of the slave power in Kansas. This organization was under the 
management of those who opposed the voting policy. They were al- 
ways talking about fighting the Government if it stood in their way. 
Their leaders fled the Territory on the first approach of danger, to re- 
turn when all was over, and renew the agitation which cooler heads had 
allayed during their absence. 

" William A. Phillips, the special Kansas correspondent of the New 
York Trikine, wrote his journal, dated June 17th, 1857: 

" ' Mark my words! Nothing but a sufficient force of the United 
States army will be able to keep that Constitutional Convention in Kan- 
sas.' 

' ' At Osawkee, in July, while the Delaware Trust Lands were being 
sold, speaking of his military organization. General Lane said : ' They 
will assemble at Lecompton on the day the Constitutional Convention 
assembles, for review.' 

"I think it was near noon of Saturday, the 17th of October, 1857, 
Augustus Wattles, at that time our associate editor, entered the sanctum 
of the Herald of Freedom office in an excited manner, very unusual to 
him, and said hurriedly : 

" ' Why, Brown, we are on the eve of a revolution! General Lane 
has ordered the organized Free-State forces of the Territory to assemble 
on Monday next, with arms and three days' supply of provisions, the 
purpose of which is to march on Lecompton and kill every member of 
the Constitutional Convention. It is also his purpose to wipe out the 
Territorial Government, and set up the Topeka Government. The 
United States troops are en route for Utah, and now is thought a good 
time to strike. Unless headed off in his insane movement, notwith- 
standing our recent success at the polls, all is lost ; for the country will 
never endorse this scheme of wholesale murder! ' 

" I questioned him sufficiently to know that he was making a state- 
ment on positive knowledge. Catching my hat, I rushed to the differ- 
ent business houses, and made them acquainted with the information 
Mr. Wattles had imparted. G. W. Collamore, G. W. Smith, Wesley 
and Charles Duncan (both now living at Lawrence), George Ford, 



CONTEMPLATED MASSACRE. 37 1 

Columbus Hornsby, and, indeed, all the substantial men whom I met, 
were invited to assemble immediately in a vacant room over the store 
of Messrs. Duncan for consultation. In a very short time they were in 
session, probably from fifty to one hundred. We organized, with Judge 
Smith as chairman. The object of the meeting was briefly stated, 
when, on motion of Mr. Collamore, a committee of three was appointed 
to invite General Lane to attend the meeting. 

" The committee soon returned, accompanied by the General. The 
chairman stated to him what the people had casually learned in regard 
to his proposed descent on Lecompton, and the assassination of the 
members of the Constitutional Convention, and inquired of him if they 
were correctly informed. 

"The General at first seemed to evade a direct answer. He en- 
tered into a disquisition on the wrongs the people of Kansas had 
sustained from the pro-slavery party, and was really eloquent, in his 
way, as he recounted our grievances. While he was speaking in this 
strain, avoiding an answer to Judge Smith's interrogatory, a crowd of 
young men, ' boys,' as Lane always called them, came pouring in at the 
lower end of the room, and, as was their habit, when Lane pointed his 
long, bony finger and said ' Great God ! ' in his peculiar way, they cheered 
heartily. Seeing that his backers were with him, he became more 
bold and defiant. I was without writing material, but with pencil, old 
envelopes, backs of letters, and on finger-nails, wrote down the sub- 
stance of Lane's wildest utterances. * * * 

" It was apparent by the vociferous cheering, long before he con- 
cluded, that then and there was not the time or place to vote on the 
question, so an adjournment was had until evening, in front of the 
Morrow House. 

" During the afternoon the whole town was advised of the character 
of the evening meeting, and the attendance was very large. Judge 
Smith called the meeting to order. General Lane desired a further 
hearing, and was given the temporary stand. He came prepared for 
the occasion, and his backers were with him. They cheered him to the 
echo. Mr. Collamore and myself moved among the crowd, and both 
despaired of the result. 

" Some other person followed Lane. I think it was Judge Schuy- 
ler, who, in a mild and pacificatory speech, deprecated such a condition 
of the country, and expressed his opinion that the occasion did not de- 
mand such extreme measures as were proposed. 

" As the second speaker retired, Joel K. Goodin mounted the ros- 
trum. Mr, Collamore and myself expressed surprise to see him take 
the stand. He commenced by saying he had received an order from 
his superior officer to report at Lawrence, armed and equipped for effi- 
cient military duty, and to bring provisions and camp-equipage for three 



37- 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



days' service ; that, ' In obedience to that order, I am here to-night with 
my command, having made the journey all the way from Centropolis 
especially to obey it. (Cheers.) I feel that the occasion is one which 
demands great sacrifices. (Cheers.) We have worked all summer in 
a quiet way to regain the rights wrested from us by the invasion of the 
30th of March, '55, and in spite of fraud and artifice we have triumphed! 
We have seen this Territory torn and disturbed by hostile parties ; men 
murdered in cold blood; our homes burned, and our families scattered; 
and we, at times, compelled to seek personal safety in flight. Governor 
Geary came here and restored order ; and Governor Walker has bent 
all his energies in the same direction. Under his wise administration, 
we saw in imagination a brilliant future before us. But here is that 
Lecompton Constitutional Convention threatening us with new danger, 
when we supposed our dangers were all passed. General Lane tells us 
that further peaceful measures are out of the question ; that our only 
remedy for this new trouble is by shedding blood. I fully agree with 
him ! (Boisterous cheers. ) Nothing but blood will quiet this agitation, 
and restore tranquillity to Kansas. Nothing but blood will make Kan- 
sas a free State. (Cheers.) I came here expressly to spill blood, and 
I propose to do it before I return home. (Protracted cheering.) It is 
not just that the whole country shall be convulsed ; that disorder and 
violence shall be continued ; that the perpetuity of the Government shall 
be endangered by a revolution, when a little waste of worthless blood 
will restore order and tranquillity again! (Cheers on cheers.) But I 
may difTer with some of you as to the proper place to begin this blood- 
spilling business. (Hear! hear!) No person has occasioned more 
strife, or been the more fruitful cause of our disturbances than — ^James 
H. Lane! He demands blood! We all want it; but it is his blood 
that is demanded at this time ; and if he presses on his assassination 
project, I propose he shall be the first person to contribute in that 
direction.' (The wildest cheering possible, greatly prolonged, fol- 
lowed. ) 

" General Lane seemed perfectly confounded. The whole throng 
were taken by surprise, and the business portion of it were delighted 
beyond expression that some person had the ability and sufficient force 
of character to meet a bold, bad man, and throttle his murderous plans 
at their inception." 

As to the truthfulness of this report, Dr. Brown has kindly 
permitted the use of the following letters of endorsement. 
It is unnecessary to say to such as know the gentlemen 
writing these letters that no persons stand higher for integ- 
rity and veracity than they : 



LETTERS OF DUNCAN AND GOODIN. 373 

" Lawrence, Kansas, May 8, 1881. 
" Doctor Brown : With regard to your ' Reminiscences of General 
Walker,' I am glad to say, after a careful perusal of the work, it em- 
bodies the exact facts in every essential particular as they came under 
my personal observation. In reading I could not but feel grateful that 
one of the 'old guard' remained who could so truthfully and minutely 
record every important event occurring during the period of which 
you write. I assure you, friend Brown, that your work is highly prized, 
and shall be carefully preserved. 

" Yours respectfully, 

"C. S. Duncan." 

" Ottawa, Kansas, November 30, 1881. 

"My Old Friend: I received yesterday the galley proof of your 
' Blood and Thunder' article. Chapter 16, in your ' Reminiscences of 
Governor Walker,' and have carefully read it. It freshly brought to 
mind many past scenes and incidents. My little ' blood speech ' is cor- 
rectly reported as near as I can remember it — at least you have given its 
import. We were being called from our homes every few days to satisfy 
the ambition and caprice of the uneasy and tireless Lane, and were be- 
coming not only disgusted but mad, and proposed to have it ' dried up.' 
A most fearful and wanton system of ravaging and assassination was 
being planned by Lane, which the Free- State party were intended to 
be held responsible for, not only to our own Government, but to the 
world. For one, I was unwilling to take any such responsibility. 
Those I had with me felt the same way, and urged that I give public 
expression to their views. This I did fearlessly and plainly, and was 
most happy then, as I am now, that I contributed something towards 
turning the tide of proposed outlawry and bloodshed into channels of 
peace. 

" In the early days we always had a bad element at Lawrence. I 
refer to the young, undisciplined bloods, who were without reputable 
means of support, always ready and anxious to take part in any hellish 
scheme set on foot to stir up strife. This element was largely con- 
trolled by, or rather was ready to effervesce at, the dictum of Lane. 
Their time was nothing, while we in the country had to undergo many 
severe privations in running after Lane's orders, messages, and com- 
mands as self-imposed military dictator. No wonder we tired and felt 
in a degree revengeful. For years I could not agree with him, and was 
constantly in his way in the ' Executive Committee,' thwarting his ridic- 
ulously impracticable, reckless, extravagant, and sometimes atrocious 
plans and suggestions. Usually I had Judge Smith, yourself, and 
Holliday, when present, with me, which gave us the majority. He 
would curse and fume, but we were firm and inflexible, so he would 



374 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



soon drop his crazy project, to immediately concoct another equally ob- 
jectionable. I feel that we did our duty well, and am content to abide 
the decision of the future historian who shall review our actions. 
" Truly yours, 

"J. K. GOODIN." 

On motion of Dr. Brown the meeting voted to hold a 
mass convention at Lecompton when the Constitutional Con- 
vention should meet, and fire off some resolutions and 
speeches instead of Sharp's rifles. General Lane was pres- 
ent at that convention and relieved himself by making a 
characteristic speech, and the war cloud passed off. 

When the convention completed its labors, it submitted a 
slavery provision only to be voted upon, and this was am- 
biguous. The votes were to be " for the constitution with 
slavery " or " for the constitution with no slavery." The 
constitution with no slavery made that institution perpetual 
as to slaves then in the Territory and their offspring. 

The constitution declared that slaves were property and 
that 

" The right of property in slaves now in the Territory shall 
in no manner be interfered with. 

" No alteration shall be made to affect the right of prop- 
erty in the ownership of slaves." 

This election was ignored by the Free-State men. It was 
held on the 21st of December, and 6266 votes were cast for 
the constitution with slavery, and 569 votes for the constitu- 
tion with no slavery. A large part of these votes, as esti- 
mated, were fraudulent. 

The Free-State men petitioned Governor Stanton — Gov- 
ernor Walker having gone to Washington never to return — 
to convene the Legislature, now Free-State, that provision 
might be made for submitting the constitution as a whole to 
a vote of the people. Accordingly, the Legislature was 
convened on the 7th day of December, and the constitution 
was submitted as desired. At this election the vote for the 
constitution with slavery was 13S ; for the constitution with 



FREE-STATE CONVENTION. 375 

no slavery, 23 ; while against the constitution the vote was 
10,226. 

This was a severe blow and should have been fatal in any 
"well-regulated community," but political parties sometimes 
become desperate and slavery propagandists were always so. 
It was feared the Administration had votes enough in Con- 
gress to admit the fraud even against this overwhelming vote 
of the people, and the President recommended that it should 
be done, hence one more "job " remained for the Free-State 
men, namely, to elect the State officers and Legislature 
under this constitution, that it might be speedily changed if 
admitted. Upon this question they were divided. A con- 
vention was held at Lawrence, lasting two days, to consider 
the matter. Those in favor of voting regarded the question 
as most vital and were intensely interested, while some who 
were opposed to voting pleaded inconsistency and a backing 
down from the high position previously occupied ; and 
another class preferred anarchy to law, confusion to peace ; 
and these two classes when united out-voted the conserva- 
tives by getting their friends recognized as delegates in differ- 
ent parts of the Territory not fully represented, and by vot- 
ing by districts. A majority of the members present were 
in favor of voting, but when the vote was taken by districts 
the proposition failed. As this was the rule of the conven- 
tion the conservatives were beaten. Lane was not in the 
convention, but was a party to a characteristic trick thus 
described in G. W. Brown's " Reminiscences of Governor 
Walker : " 

" And this result was reached by an artful ruse of General Lane and 
his backers, which is worthy of note in this connection : Just as the 
vote was being taken, General E. B. Whitman appeared on the scene 
and asked to be heard. He represented that he had left the camp of 
General Lane, near Sugar Mound, in south-eastern Kansas, on Tues- 
day night at nine o'clock; that he had ridden continually, changing 
horses four times, having been twenty hours in the saddle ; that he had 
travelled one hundred miles, stopping to eat only one meal on the whole 
route, to bring the convention the intelligence. He said General Lane 



376 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



had about two hundred men under his command ; that he held a strong 
position ; was well supplied with provisions, and was expecting an attack 
the next day from a company of one hundred United States troops and 
a large force of Missourians. He further stated that General Lane had 
issued a proclamation stating that war had been made upon the peaceful, 
unoffending inhabitants, and that he had consented to take command of 
the people, at their urgent solicitation, to resist aggression; that all 
persons taken in arms from Missouri who were arrayed against the 
people of Kansas would be put to death ; that he is only acting on the 
defensive, and when the attempt at subjugation shall be abandoned, his 
command will return to their ordinary avocations. 

" General Whitman went on to say that persons were marching for- 
ward from all parts of the Territory to the scene of excitement, to stand 
or fall with General Lane and his brave command. He represented the 
danger as imminent, and the probability is that the contest will become 
general. After this statement he proceeded to harangue the convention, 
charging them with wasting their time over a question of no importance 
whatever, while the real battle was being fought between freedom and 
slavery in southern Kansas. ' This is no time for hair-splitting ques- 
tions,' he said, ' but it is the moment for brave and vigorous action.' 

" Whitman's wild manner and excitement was extended to the 
audience. Hinton, falsely representing Breckenridge County, being a 
resident of Lawrence, sprang upon a seat and called for three cheers for 
General Lane. The vote was taken immediately following this episode, 
with the results stated. 

" After packing the convention on Wednesday, it was very apparent 
the result reached would be attained. On that evening about thirty 
members of the convention held a meeting at the Herald of Freedom 
office, where the situation was discussed, and the fact was shown that 
the convention was controlled by a secret organization, at the head of 
which was General Lane, Whitman being understood as second in rank. 
This fact was demonstrated a day or two after Whitman's crazy speech, 
by the redoubtable General, who was ' on the eve of fighting the United 
States troops,' appearing on the streets of Lawrence congratulating his 
friends on the result of the convention." 

But the feeling was so intense on the part of the conserva- 
tives that a mass meeting was immediately held in the base- 
ment of the Herald of Freedom office and a ticket nominated, 
headed by G. W. Smith for Governor. 

The men most active and efficient in this bolt were G. W. 
Brown, Thomas Ewing, Jr., and S. N. Wood. To these 



LECOMPTON STATE ELECTION. 377 

men is due a large share of the credit for the vigorous cam- 
paign that followed. Ewing furnished the sinews of war, 
probably not less than one thousand dollars. 

When Lane appeared in Lawrence after his ruse, he was 
very smiling and complaisant, thinking he had obtained a 
great victory ; but he soon found that the bolters' ticket was 
being endorsed by all the influential citizens and that it 
would be elected, even with his opposition, and he joined 
the procession. As he had no use for a minority party, 
whenever he found his malcontents and " Danites " were to 
be beaten he would join the conservatives. Being destitute 
of principles or convictions of any kind, and of moral or 
physical courage, and being consumed by an inordinate am- 
bition, he was an unsatisfactory and untrustworthy leader of 
his faction. 

The election came oiT on the 4th of January, 1858, and 
the Free-State ticket was successful. It was true General 
Calhoun, the president of the convention, with the president 
of the council and speaker of the house, was to count the 
votes, and he withheld certificates and hid the returns under 
a wood pile in a candle box at Lecompton ; but Colonel 
Walker found the box, the Legislature passed a stringent law 
against frauds in elections, and Calhoun left Kansas. Now 
there was but slight motive on the part of the Democrats to 
admit Lecompton, and the famous English Bill was passed 
permitting another vote on the fraud. 

This vote was taken August 2, 1858, with 1788 for and 
1 1,300 against Lecompton in its new garb. This ended the 
struggle so far as a Slave-State constitution was concerned. 
Governor Stanton is entitled to great credit for his course 
throughout in the matter, and especially for convening the 
Legislature for the purpose of submitting Lecompton to a fair 
vote of the people. By this act he lost his official head, but he 
gained the lasting gratitude of the people, and a most enviable 
place in history as a patriot who held country higher than 
party, and personal honor higher than political preferment. 



378 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

General J. W. Denver, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 
was on a visit to the Indian tribes in Kansas when the action 
of Stanton in convening the Legislature was reported to 
Washington, and he was immediately appointed Secretarj' 
and acting Governor in Stanton's place. The first informa- 
tion of this action that reached Kansas was in the St. Louis 
Democrat. As Robinson was on his way to Lecompton, he 
called upon Governor Stanton at the old " Clark cabin " 
with this paper, and there found General Denver as his 
guest. It was evident that Stanton had been removed be- 
cause of his action towards Lecompton, and Robinson de- 
clared that if Stanton's work was to be undone and the peo- 
ple subjected to further outrage, all conservative counsels 
would end at once. General Denver, who had remained 
silent for some time, at length said the matter was new to 
him and entirely unexpected, but of one thing all might rest 
assured : if he should act in place of Stanton, he should fin- 
ish the work already begun and should do everything in his 
power to preserve the peace of the Territory under the con- 
trol of the majority of the citizens. On this assurance Rob- 
inson pledged earnest support, and never had occasion to 
withdraw or regret his pledge. 

The Territorial Legislature met January 4, 1858, in regu- 
lar session, and enacted a large volume of new statutes. 
Among others a law of the called session was perfected, at 
the instance of Lane, creating a " Military Board," consist- 
ing of several generals, with Lane general-in-chief. As this 
was an attempt to override the authority of the Governor 
as commander-in-chief of the militia, it was most impolitic, 
as it was not only in violation of the Organic Act and 
would necessarily arouse antagonism where there should be 
co-operation and harmony, but, worst of all, it gave the 
semblance of authority to the leader of the lawless bands 
that infested the Territory, whose only business was plunder 
and pillage, and whose only aspirations were for disorder 
and revolution. Not long after the Military Board was or- 



GENERAL MASSACRE PLANNED. 379 

ganized Lane became thirsty for blood and proposed a gen- 
eral massacre of pro-slavery men. 

Robinson was in Lawrence at this time, and he was in- 
vited to join a secret order, which invitation was accepted. 
After the initiation ceremonies Lane arose with great dignity 
and said he had ordered General to strike at Leaven- 
worth, General to strike at Atchison, General to 

strike at Kickapoo, and other places were to be struck by 
other generals, closing his solemn announcement by saying, 
" It now remains for Lawrence to say what shall be done 
with Lecompton." After this revelation silence reigned for 
the space of several minutes, when from different parts of 
the room Robinson was called for. He responded to the 
call, and said he had heard a very remarkable statement and 
he would hke to know by whose authority this general mas- 
sacre was to be made. Lane rephed, " By the authority of 
the Mihtary Board." Robinson said that neither the Mili- 
tary nor any other board had any such authority, and he 
gave notice that whoever attempted to execute any such 
orders would have him to fight. 

One of these remarkable orders has been preserved, which 
reads as follows : 

" Doniphan, Kansas Territory. 
" Brigadie}--General J. G. Losee : 

"General: The bearers of this, Colonel Leinhart and his friend 
Dickinson, have some idea of colonizing Kickapoo. If you could fur- 
nish them forty or fifty hardy pioneers who could bear the exposure of 
such a settlement, I am clear that it would be attended with good results 
to Kansas and the cause of freedom. Leinhart and Dickinson are the 
men to put through without flinching anything they may undertake. I 
trust you will give this matter your earnest and immediate attention, as 
Kickapoo should be colonized at an early day. 

" Yours truly, J. H. Lane." 

It is unnecessary to say that as soon as Lane's insane 
projects came to the surface they were squelched by the 
people, but how much private assassination and infamy was 
practised the Judgment Day alone can reveal. 



380 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

That both Lane and Brown, were monomaniacs there is 
but little question — one, like all timid men with arbitrary 
power, cruel and bloodthirsty ; and the other believed he 
was commissioned by God to free the slave and exterminate 
the slave-holders. But the friends of these men will not 
permit the plea of insanity, and hence the other alternative 
must be accepted — if not monomaniacs, they were demo- 
niacs. 

Whether the secret order in which. Robinson was initiated 
was the " Danite " order, so called, or some other, he does 
not know, as he was never notified of another meeting ; but 
that it could.be used to aid unprincipled men in a career of 
crime was self-evident. The only revelation of the " Dan- 
ites " that was published by one of its own members was by 
James Redpath, in his paper called the Crusader of Freedom. 
He called its name " Danite," and as it engaged in the same 
work proposed by Lane in the order at Lawrence, it was 
probably the same association. That its character and the 
character of its leader may be understood, Redpath is quoted 
as follows : 

" We are ready to swear in any court of justice, or to make solemn 
affidavit of the fact, that General Lane intimated to us that if Governor 
Denver challenged him, he would have him put out of the way by the 
' secret order known as the Danites.' 

" We thought he could not be in earnest, but circumstances subse- 
quently ascertained convinced us of our error. It was the corroboration 
of this intention that determined us, at whatever cost, to throw the 
human viper off. It will cost us everything we possess in Kansas — 
press, landed property, and business prospects ; but we prefer to be 
free and poor, rather than remain in the power of an assassin. 

" As, a few weeks before, he had tried to make me the agent for as- 
sassinating Robert S. Kelly ; as he M^as pursuing Mr. Shepherd, with 
whom he quarrelled when he could not make him a tool — with a malig- 
nity it would be euphony to characterize as infernal. I peremptorily 
refused. 

" Lane organized a club of Danites in Doniphan County. I became 
a member of it. Although he could have attended it, and was expected 
to attend it, he attempted, on the second night of its meeting, to make 
me the agent to induce the club to kill Bob Kelly. * * * I never 



DANITES NEW CONSTITUTION. 38 1 

hated Lane till he asked me to do this deed. I did indeed despise him 
from the bottom of my soul, but did not believe him capable of a scheme 
as diabolical as to involve a young man, without any cause, in a criminal 
act of private revenge. It was so cowardly, contemptible, and hellish 
that I left him without saying a word. 

" I am not the only young man whom he has tried to use for his 
cowardly schemes of secret and criminal revenge, and he may find, too, 
that he has reckoned without his host in more cases than in mine. 

" But beware, Lane, beware! for I have not told all that I know." 

From the time of the election of State officers and Legis- 
lature under the Lecompton Constitution, on the 4th of Janu- 
ary, till the submission under the EngUsh Bill in August, 
1858, there was a state of suspense and uncertainty. No 
one could predict the fate of Lecompton in Congress, and 
much discussion was had by the Free-State men. Some 
advocated another constitutional convention to be called by 
the Legislature that it might have the same authority in this 
respect as Lecompton. This method was at length adopted, 
all parties acquiescing. A bill was passed by the Legisla- 
ture just before adjournment, and sent to the Governor, but 
as he thought Kansas had constitutions enough already, and 
as it did not reach him till within three days of the expira- 
tion of the session, he pocketed it. Here was a dilemma. 
If he would veto the bill and return it, there would be no 
difficulty in passing it over his veto ; but how could it be 
reached under the circumstances ? 

Governor Denver, at the Old Settlers' meeting in Bis- 
marck Grove, September, 1884, had this to say of this con- 
stitution : 

' ' Well, I concluded that I would not approve that bill for calling a 
convention to frame a new constitution. Several committees were ap- 
pointed by the Legislature to call upon me, begging me, if I would not 
approve it, to return it to them that they might act upon it. I told 
them no, that I had made up my mind, and that I was not to be moved ; 
that I thought we had constitutions enough, and that I had an absolute 
veto in that case, and I proposed to exercise it, which I did. 

" The next night, after twelve o'clock, a bill was brought to me pur- 
porting to be a bill calling a convention for a new constitution, and en- 



382 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

dorsed on it that it had been returned by the Governor and passed by a 
two-thirds vote, notwithstanding these objections. That was signed by 
the four officers — the presiding officer of each house, the Secretary of 
the Council, and the Clerk of the Assembly. I immediately sent for 
them, and told them that while that act of theirs, if I was disposed to 
act upon it, gave me power to do something much to their disadvantage, 
I did not desire to do it, because I did not want any trouble or disturb- 
ance in the Territory ; that that act was all wrong on their part ; that 
they certified to that which was not true ; that that paper had never been 
before the Governor ; that the bill sent to him never had been out of 
his possession, and he had not returned it to the Legislature with his 
objections, and consequently the whole statement was false. 

" Mr. Currier had the bill in his hands. He asked me what I 
wanted them to do. I told them I wished them to do one of two 
things : to give me a certificate of the fact that that had never been acted 
upon by the Legislature at all, or else to destroy it there, in my pres- 
ence. They said that that would be pretty rough. Currier said that 
he would not put his name to any such paper as that, and said he; 
' What shall we do with it? ' Deitzler said: ' Destroy it.' He said: 
' All right,' and tore it up and stuck it in the stove. .That was the last 
of that bill. 

"Now, a resolution was passed after the term had closed, after 
twelve o'clock at night, and the legal term of the Legislature had abso- 
lutely closed — a resolution was passed, declaring that that bill had been 
properly passed by the Legislature, and they resolved that they would 
go on and hold the convention. Notwithstanding all that had occurred, 
and the failure of the bill to become a law, they decided to hold the con- 
vention." 

This failure to give legality to the convention left it on a 
par with the Topeka Constitution, and it failed to receive the 
endorsement or support of many Free-State men. However, 
such men as Conway, Phillips, Ritchey, Lane, and others, 
who wanted some person at the head of the State Govern- 
ment who could be used to set the Government in motion 
against the territorial authority, besides many conservative 
men, attended the election for members of the convention 
and the convention itself. The members first met at Min- 
neola, the new capital of the Territory, but after organizing 
adjourned to Leavenworth ; hence this constitution bears 
the name of that town. The location of the capital at Min- 



LEAVENWORTH CONSTITUTION. 383 

neola, on an open prairie, with plenty of shares of stock in 
and around the Legislature, shows that the Free-State men 
were human, as much so in some respects as the border 
ruffians. Of course Governor Denver paid no attention to 
the new seat of government, and the archives remained at 
Lecompton. Attorney-General Black gave his opinion that 
the bill calling the Leavenworth constitutional convention 
did not become a law, and so indifferent did the people be- 
come to this instrument that it received only about 3000 
votes in a voting population of about 14,000 or 15,000 in 
the Territory. 

Notwithstanding the want of faith in the constitution, all 
parties rallied to the nominating convention for state officers, 
April 28-29, to see that proper men should be selected. 
The ticket, headed by H. J. Adams for Governor, was satis- 
factory to the conservatives, as it had upon it the names of 
some of the safest men in the Territory. 

Lane and the extreme radicals were disappointed, as they 
failed to get what they had labored for. Some of these men 
favored setting the Government in operation even against 
the territorial Government, whether Lecompton should be 
admitted or not, but they could not control the convention 
nor get such men nominated for State officers. Even Lane, 
who went to the convention declaring he would have a nom- 
ination for United States senator, utterly failed to get an en- 
dorsement for that position. 

As in 1856 there were men desirous of coming in conflict 
with Federal authority without rhyme or reason, so now, in 
1857-58, the most ultra and wild schemes were advanced. 
The Free-State men, thanks to the men of political sagacity 
like Thomas Ewing, G. W. Smith, W. Y. Roberts, G. W. 
Brown, S. N. Wood, and those who secured the election of 
State officers and Legislature under the Lecompton constitu- 
tion, now had possession of every Government in the Terri- 
tory — the Territorial Legislature, the Topeka State Govern- 
ment, the Lecompton State Government, and would have 



384 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

the Leavenworth State government — and yet some of the 
"ultra-radical" men were almost dying for some scheme 
that would result in a conflict. They were very bellicose 
because when the Territorial and State Legislatures met in 
January, both at Lawrence, the State Governor and Legis- 
lature did not at once proceed to make war upon the Terri- 
torial Legislature, although both were equally Free-State, 
and one had not a dollar in money and could not get a dol- 
lar except by taxing an impoverished people, while all the 
expenses of the other would be paid by the Federal Govern- 
ment. The Free-State men of both governments reviewed 
the situation in a most amicable manner, and decided upon 
the course adopted without bitterness or friction of any 
kind ; yet some men had grown very wise, in their own esti- 
mation, and belabored the stupid and cowardly office-holders 
with a political cat-and-nine-tails. Most officious in this 
work was Mr. E. B. Whitman, formerly of Massachusetts. 
He never seemed pleased that the ruse which he played in 
the convention in December, when he made a sensational 
speech about Lane's great exploits in the southern part of 
the Territory, should come to naught. The election of the 
State officers and Legislature, after such an effort to defeat 
it, was more than a common Christian could bear, especially 
a Unitarian Christian. Hence he and Conway wrote most 
remarkable letters to George L. Stearns, of Massachusetts, 
for money to enable them to procure the election of the 
right kind of men for the State officers under the Leaven- 
worth constitution. As Mr. Whitman's letter gives the 
" ultra-radical " view, and as it, with Conway's, was pub- 
lished in circular form and distributed broadcast in the East, 
It is here given : 

" Lawrence, April 13, 1858. 
' ' George L. Stearns, Esq. 

" My Dear Sir: Yours of March i8th and 30th are both before 
me. Politically, I can answer both in the same terms. A brief review 
of the course which events have taken here for the last six months will 
enable you to understand our position and appreciate our necessities. 



WHITMAN TO STEARNS. 385 

While Kansas is blessed with many of the truest men of the age, men 
who are fully up to the emergency, she is also cursed with some of the 
most unprincipled demagogues that ever afflicted any country. Prin- 
ciples are of use to them only to subserve personal or party ends ; and 
what makes the matter worse is, that some of them are among those 
who have heretofore been looked up to as leaders. 

" In January last a large number of the people were induced, by the 
grossest deception, to go into an election for State officers under the 
Lecompton Constitution. The distinct declaration was made that the 
aim, in this move, was to fill the offices to the exclusion of others, slavery 
men, and then to refrain from touching the unclean thing, and allow the 
people to set up their own government, either the Topeka or some 
other, to be inaugurated by the Legislature about to assemble. No 
sooner were they elected than some of the more bold and incautious 
began to avow their intention to put the Goi'ernment in operation, and 
make it the parent of the future government. In January the two 
Legislatures met — the Territorial Legislature of Free-State men, and the 
Topeka State Government Legislature. It very soon became evident 
to the most casual observer that there was very little unity of purpose, 
and in fact a real antagonism of principle. Long before the Territorial 
Legislature adjourned, it was pretty well understood that designing men 
were making tools and fools of the Topeka Legislature, to subserve un- 
worthy ends ; to keep the people quiet while they matured their plans 
for its overthrow. Nothing, however, was said openly, but everybody 
was suspicious of his neighbor. The bill for a new Constitutional Con- 
vention was evidently postponed with a design to defeat it, and yet it 
was held up as the compromise ground on which both.extremes were to 
meet. On Saturday the Territorial Legislature adjourned, and in the 
afternoon a mass meeting was held to consider of the public welfare. 
The Topeka Legislature had not adjourned, but was anxiously inquiring 
what to do. In order, if possible, to draw out an open declaration of 
secretly cherished purposes, and to compel men to show their real 
colors, I introduced a resolution to the effect ' that in case the Le- 
compton Constitution should be adopted by Congress, and a government 
inaugurated under it, before the Constitutional Convention just created 
should have time to complete its work, then it would be the duty of 
every Free-State man to fall back upon the so-called Topeka Govern- 
ment, and rally under it to the last.' This called forth one of the 
warmest and the ablest debates that has ever taken place in Kansas, 
which was continued until one o'clock Sunday morning. It compelled 
a full declaration of opinion and of purpose. Governor Robinson de- 
clared ' that the Topeka Government was dead, and had been since last 
June.' Other prominent men declared — sofue, that the Free-State offi- 
cers and Legislature under the Lecompton Constitution, if recognized, 
25 



386 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

would assemble, organize, and take the oath of allegiance, choose tvio 
United States senators, provide for a new Constitutional Convention, 
and then adjourn. Others, that ' they would organize, and call the 
Convention, but not choose senators ;' and still others that 'they should 
hold together, and pass such laws as the occasion required, be they more 
or less. How the vote upon the resolution would have stood, I know 
not; but having accomplished my purpose of drawing out an open 
declaration of purpose, I withdrew the resolution, and the meeting ad- 
journed. On Monday the Topeka Government formally broke up, 
killed by its professed friends, deserted by those who had created it. 
But the members went home, and the people went to work in their own 
way, with a full knowledge of the issue, as made up, to choose delegates 
to the Constitutional Convention. This Convention met, and when I 
say they elected M. F. Conway president, it indicates their complexion. 
The instrument you have, ere this, seen, and it will speak for itself. In 
the test votes on citizenship, etc., the Lecompton faction showed stead- 
ily nineteen votes only, out of a convention of eighty, and many of 
those had succeeded by political manceuvering in obtaining seats. 

" In the course of the debates, which took somewhat of a wide 
range, a severe blow was given to the purpose of those who had proposed 
to make any use whatever of the Lecompton Constitution, if accepted. 
The Lecompton Free-State men, mortified and discomfited, have re- 
turned home, determined, if possible, to secure the offices also under 
this Constitiitiott, and then let this one die. The doctrine of the people 
is for the Free-State officers under the Lecompton Constitution to take 
no oath, to refrain from all action under it, but letting it quietly fall and 
die, to give place to the people's government just noiu fanned. It held 
that under such circumstances the Federal Government could have no 
show of right to interfere, and all would end well. If the Lecompton 
Constitution is adopted, and pro-slavery men receive their certificates, 

or enough of them to secure their ends, the boys . If 

the Free-State men get their certificates, or if the Constitution is re- 
jected, then everything will depend upon the character of the men elected 
under the new Constitution. If the right men are put in power under 
it, then the)/ will make it the living Gove7-n)nent of the State, and no 
power on earth can withstand it. They made it to stand by it, and 
for no boys'' game. But the Lecomptonists, or, in other words, the 
Hunker Consej-vative Detftocratic Free-State men, if they can possess its 
offices, will quietly let it die. They are strict legitimists, and have all 
at once a holy horror of anything not having the forms of law, though 
it be ever so bogus — and a moral dread of the Federal displeasure. 
They are seeking, if possible, to save a corrupt Administration from 
the just retribution for its sins. 

" You will easily understand, from this brief expos^, how important 



"ULTRA-RADICAL" POSITION. 387 

we ultra-radical men deem it to have true men to fill the offices. The 
people are right, but the leaders, or the would-bes, are wrong ; but you 
k)tcnu /una much tact, tnoney, and wire-pulling can do to outwit and defeat 
the will of the people. 

" The Administration, with Denver as its agent, will spare no efTorts 
to defeat this movement, and to clear the track of this people's measure, 
as they did of the former one. They have means at command, and M'ill 
lose no time in working their cards. Our people are generally poor, 
except in principles, and are illy prepared to go into the canvass. If 
we had only the money which I solicited at Worcester, for a purpose 
for which it never was used, to aid now in the election, it might change 
the result entirely. 

" If anything can be done for us in that way, no time is to be lost. 
The State Convention meets on the 28th to nominate State officers, and 
on the third Tuesday of May they are to be voted for. If wrong men 
should secure the nomination, the field should be contested at the polls, 
by volunteer candidates, and they would need money. As the tragedy 
draws to a close, we all find our feelings more deeply enlisted. We 
feel grateful for your sympathy; lor force, we shall have no occasion, 
I hope, and if so, a small domestic one will do the work effectually. 
But if you can furnish some funds, it will be a God-send to us in the 
present crisis. Send none to those but whom you knoiv to be politically 
sound. If anything is done, telegraph to Simmons & Leadbeater, or 
to S. C. Davis & Co., to draw upon Boston for it, and forward by 
express without delay. 

" If the people's government is put in operation, and the Federal 
power attempts to interfere, there will be a desperate struggle. We 
shall do our best to maintain our honor and the right. The free States 
must call their Legislatures at once together, remonstrate with the gen- 
eral Government, raise money, raise troops, and by a loud demonstration 
cause the President to pause in his career. But will they do that? I 
fear not. I do, however, believe that many a Spartan ' three hundred ' 
can be found here to fill the pass, and who would infinitely prefer to 
' fall, v.ith arms in hand, to a shameful and ignominious existence, after 
having betrayed the interests of humanity so basely here in Kansas. 
Pardon the haste and imperfections of this ; you can doubtless decipher 
it ; the midnight hour must be the excuse. 

" Very truly your friend, E. B. Whitman." 

The effect of such a letter may be seen by the following, 
sent to Robinson from one of the most devoted friends of 
Kansas. Although marked private, as it refers only to mat- 
ters of public interest it may not be improper to insert it : 



388 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" Boston, May 6, '58. 

"Dear Sir: The inclosed paper (Whitman and Conway's circular) 
was handed me by Mr. Stearns yesterday, and has enlightened me as 
to the use of the fund which has been raised here. This fund was to 
be placed in the Lands of Mr. Conway and Mr. Whitman to defeat the 
adoption of the Lecompton Constitution under the English Bill. * * * 
On reading the Kansas newspapers and this circular, I see how matters 
are going, and have written a note to Dr. Howe requesting that my 
small portion of the money shall not be used for advancing the interest 
of the Lane, Phillips, and Conway party. 

"The world is made up of all sorts of men, but Kansas seems to 
have more than its share of the weaker brethren and rogues. 
" Yours truly, 

"Amos A. Lawrence." 

The nominating convention was held before the fate of 
Lecompton in Congress had been decided, and it resolved 
that, should Lecompton be admitted without a provision for 
voting upon its adoption by the people, the Leavenworth 
Government should become the de facto Government of Kan- 
sas. But this resolution was chiefly to operate upon Con- 
gress. Had Lecompton been admitted, as the Government 
under it was Free-State there would have been no more 
friction than between the Topeka State Government and the 
Territorial Legislature, unless the Leavenworth Government 
should be officered by the " ultra-radicals," like Lane, Whit- 
man, and company. 

The State officers under the Lecompton Constitution were 
G. W, Smith, Governor; W. Y. Roberts, Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor; P. C. Schuyler, Secretary of State; A. J. Mead, 
Treasurer ; Joel K. Goodin, Auditor. 

The State officers under Leavenworth were : Governor, 
Henry J. Adams ; Lieutenant Governor, Cyrus K. HoUi- 
day ; Secretary of State, E. P. Bancroft ; Treasurer, J. B. 
Wheeler ; Auditor, George S. Hillyer. 

These officers were all conservative and reasonable men, 
not one of whom could be induced by Lane or any one else 
to jeopardize the peace of the Territory over a technicality, 



CONSERVATIVE POLICY TRIUMPHANT. 389 

abstraction, or mere matter of form. It is safe to say that, 
with such men representing the respective organizations, 
there would have been no occasion for Whitman's contem- 
plated war, whatever action Congress might take. As has 
been stated, the English Bill was overwhelmingly voted down 
when submitted, and the political war came to an end with 
victory on the side of the conservative Free-State men. 
What the result would have been had the policy of the 
" ultra-radicals " prevailed is mere conjecture, as in no case 
was it adopted, but it certainly was most hazardous. Here 
was a great national party in full control of the Federal and 
territorial Governments, and the policy adopted from the Or- 
ganic Act down was the policy of this party, backed by the 
entire slave interest of the country, which had controlled the 
Government for many years. For a handful of men to act 
offensively against this power would have been as suicidal 
as the assault upon Harper's Ferry proved. But to have 
acquiesced in the result of the invasion of the 30th of March, 
1855, would have yielded the question at issue, as, had the 
laws been recognized and acquiesced in till the next general 
election, in 1857, slavery would have been as firmly estab- 
lished as in South Carolina, and the power of the usurpation 
through " returning boards " or otherwise would have been 
perpetual. There remained but one way of escape, and that 
was the method adopted by the Free-State party, namely, 
to act strictly on the defensive as to the Federal authority, 
but to thwart and baffle the usurpation till the Federal au- 
thority itself should be compelled by the popular outcry to 
yield a fair election to the bona fide settlers. This was the 
course recommended and adopted by the conservative Free- 
State men, although opposed at every step by Lane, Brown, 
and other "ultra-radicals." 

Had the pohcy of Whitman's letter to Stearns been 
adopted, and had it resulted, as he contemplated, in a war, 
the free States could not have been rehed upon in such an 
issue. Instead of defending constitutional rights, such as the 



390 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



possession of arms or meeting for consultation, as on the 4th 
of July at Topeka, the issue would have been forcible resist- 
ance to Federal officers in maintaining the authority of the 
Federal Government, which all parties would recognize as 
legitimate. Republican and Democratic alike — Sumner and 
Seward equally with Davis and Pierce or Buchanan. 

In such a war Thayer, Lawrence, Stearns, Howe, and all 
Massachusetts would have enlisted on the side of Pierce, 
Davis, Atchison, and South Carolina, leaving the "ultra- 
radicals " alone in their glory, hiding their diminished heads 
behind Lane's "breastworks" on the Nebraska hne, which 
he so often visited during the defensive operations of the 
Free-State party in 1856. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

DIFFICULTIES IN SOUTHERN KANSAS. MONTGOMERY AND 

BROWN. MARAIS DES CYGNES MASSACRE. BROWN's 

PARALLELS. ARTS OF PEACE. 

After the defeat of the Enghsh Bill the political crises 
were well-nigh passed, and no danger was to be feared from 
radicals or conservatives, as neither could prevent the ad- 
mission of Kansas into the Union as a free State by the 
adoption of any policy however reckless, the enemy having 
abandoned the field. In fact, after the arrival of Geary the 
struggle was between factions of Free-State men rather than 
with Slave-State men. It was well known that the latter 
could win only by fraud and sharp practice, rather than by 
votes ; and their only hope was to take advantage of any 
political mistake the Free-State men might make. 

PoHtics subsiding, attention was called to disturbances in 
southern Kansas. This part of the Territory had been more 
or less disturbed since the Potawatomie massacre, but poh- 
tics and State-making after the arrival of Geary had so ab- 
sorbed the interest of the people that but little attention 
had been given to it. George W. Clark, the former Indian 
agent, who killed Barber at the time of the Wakarusa war, 
had changed his residence from Douglas to Bourbon County, 
where he was connected with the Land Office. 

This man Clark was as extreme and reckless against 
abohtionists, or Free-State men, as Brown and Montgomery 
were against Slave-State men. Land claims were often the 
pretext for the disturbances, but undoubtedly the slavery 
question had much influence with the respective parties; 



392 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



while the hordes of thieves and plunderers cared for nothing 
but deviltry and spoils. The policy of Brown and Mont- 
gomery was not always in harmony. Montgomery professed 
to desire to protect the Free-State settlers in their claims, 
from which some of them had been driven, while Brown 
wanted war and revolution pure and simple. As early as 
the fall of 1856 Clark marched some men, said to be from 
Missouri, into Kansas, and Montgomery returned the com- 
pliment by visiting Missouri for reprisals. From that time 
there was no settled peace till after the Marais des Cygnes 
massacre, by Captain C. A. Hamilton, on the 19th of May, 
1858. This massacre had but one parallel, the Potawato- 
mie, on May 24, 1856, and shocked the nation with its 
atrocity. Patrick Ross, B. L. Reed, WilUam A. Stillwell, 
Asa and William Hairgrove, Austin and Amos Hall, William 
Colpetzer, M. Robinson, Asa Snyder, and John F. Camp- 
bell, peaceable and most worthy citizens, were arrested while 
about their business, marched into a ravine, drawn up in 
line, and deliberately shot down like so many criminals. 
Five of them were killed, five wounded, and one unharmed, 
although falling with the others and feigning death. The 
killed were John F. Campbell, William Colpetzer, Patrick 
Ross, WiUiam A. Stillwell, and M. Robinson. 

It had been reported that Hamilton had made out a list 
of Free-State men intended for slaughter, and Montgomery, 
says Andreas, " had determined to kill Hamilton at the first 
opportunity. To this end, about the ist of May, he ap- 
proached Hamilton's house, a log one, with a party of men, 
for the purpose of capturing him ; but finding he could effect 
nothing in the way of an attack with rifles alone, he sent a 
squad of men to bring the howitzer. But before it arrived 
a body of United States troops, on their way to Leaven- 
worth, were called to Hamilton's relief, and Montgomery 
was obliged to disperse his men. Montgomery then went 
to the sheriff of Linn County, acquainted him with Hamil- 
ton's designs, showed him the list of the proscribed Free- 



BROWN S PARALLELS. 393 

State men, and received assurances from that official that 
the men so proscribed should be protected from all harm. 
The descent when made was made unexpectedly. Mont- 
gomery was away in Johnson County. He returned the 
evening of the day of the massacre." A company of about 
two hundred men was immediately organized and went in 
pm-suit, but Hamilton was never disturbed. One of his 
men, William Griffith, was afterwards arrested, tried, con- 
victed, and hanged, Asa Hairgrove, one of the wounded 
men, acting as hangman. 

This massacre was made the text for "John Brown's 
Parallels," dated at the Trading Post, January 3, 1859. He 
had made his raid into Missouri ; one old man was killed 
by one of his parties, and eleven slaves, with horses and 
other personal property, carried or driven away. His paral- 
lel is as follows : 

"Trading Post, Kansas, January, 1859. 

" Gentlemen : You will greatly oblige a humble friend by allowing 
the use of your columns while I briefly state two parallels, in my poor 
way. 

" Not one year ago, eleven quiet citizens of this neighborhood, viz., 
William Robertson, William Colpetzer, Amos Hall, Austin Hall, John 
Campbell, Asa Snyder, William A. Stillwell, William Hairgrove, Asa 
Hairgrove, Patrick Ross, and B. L. Reed, were gathered up from their 
work and their homes by an armed force under one Hamilton, and\vith- 
out trial or opportunity to speak in their own defense, were formed into 
line, and all but one shot — five killed and five wounded. One fell un- 
harmed, pretending to be dead. All were left for dead. The only 
crime charged against them was that of being Free-State men. Now, 
I inquire, what action has ever, since the occurrence in May last, been 
taken by either the President of the United States, the Governor of 
Missouri, the Governor of Kansas, or any of their tools, or by any pro- 
slavery or Administration man, to ferret out and punish the perpetrators 
of this crime? 

" Now for the other parallel. On Sunday, December 19, a negro 
man called Jim came over to the Osage settlement from Missouri, and 
stated that he, together with his wife, two children, and another negro 
man, was to be sold within a day or two, and begged for help to get 
away. On Monday (the following) night, two small companies were 
made up to go to Missouri and forcibly liberate the five slaves, together 



394 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

with other slaves. One of these companies I assumed to direct. We 
proceeded to the place, surrounded the buildings, liberated the slaves, 
and also took certain property supposed to belong to the estate, 

" We, however, learned before leaving that a portion of the articles 
we had taken belonged to a man living on the plantation as a tenant, 
and who was supposed to have no interest in the estate. We promptly 
returned to him all we had taken. We then went to another plantation, 
where we found five more slaves, took some property and two white 
men. We moved all slowly away into the Territory for some distance, 
and then sent the white men back, telling them to follow us as soon as 
they chose to do so. The other company freed one female slave, took 
some property, and, as I am informed, killed one white man (the mas- 
ter), who fought against the liberation. 

" Now for a comparison. Eleven persons are forcibly restored to 
their natural and inalienable rights, with but one man killed, and all 
' hell is stirred from beneath.' It is currently reported that the Gov- 
ernor of Missouri has made requisition upon the Governor of Kansas 
for the delivery of all such as were concerned in the last-named ' dread- 
ful outrage.' The Marshal of Kansas is said to be collecting a posse 
of Missouri (not Kansas) men at West Point in Missouri, a little town 
about ten miles distant, to ' enforce the laws.' All pro-slavery, con- 
servative Free-State, and doughface men, and Administration tools, are 
filled with holy horror. 

" Consider the two cases, and the action of the Administration party. 
" Respectfully yours, 

" John Browx." 

I|ad John Brown compared the Potawatomie and Marais 
des Cygnes massacres, the parallel would have been more 
perfect. In the latter, as has been stated, men were taken 
without previous warning, simply because they were Free- 
State men, drawn up in line and shot down like dogs. In 
the first, the Potawatomie, men were also taken without 
warning, because they were pro-slavery men, and cut to 
pieces with cleavers or short swords. 

The Hamilton massacre is thus described by Andreas : 

" Returning to the main body, Hamilton ordered a forward march, 
and the prisoners were led down to a canon or gulch by a by-path be- 
tween rocks, single file, when the commands were given, ' Halt,' ' Front 
face,' * Close up,' to the prisoners ; and his own men were formed in 
line in front of them on a shelf or rock about as wide as a good wagon 



HAMILTON S MASSACRE. 395 

road, and somewhat higher than the prisoners' heads. Deliberately the 
orders were given by Captain Hamilton, ' Make ready,' 'Take aim,' 
but before the order ' Fire ' could be uttered, one of the worst of the 
border ruffians, Brockett by name, turned his horse away, whereupon 

Hamilton said to him, ' Brockett, G d d n you, why don't you 

wheel into line? ' Brockett said, ' I'll be d d if I will have anything 

to do with such a G d d d piece of business as this. If it was 

in a fight I would fire.' At this, Hamilton took out his revolver and 
fired at the prisoners, giving the order to his men to fire at the same 
time. Alvin Hamilton's gun, which was aimed at B. L. Reed, missed 
fire the first time ; Reed not being hit, turned partly round to see his 
companions fall, and, Hamilton's gun being immediately re-cocked and 
fired, received the ball on one of his ribs and fell. Thus all these in- 
nocent, brave men were brought down. On their part there was no 
flinching or begging for quarter. Mr. Hairgrove, just before the order 
to fire was given, said, ' Gentlemen, if you are going to shoot us, take 
good aim.' After waiting a few minutes, Hamilton gave the order to 
his men to go down and see who were dead, and to shoot those who 
were not. Two of the ruffians went down among the fallen and fired 
three shots at different ones who gave signs of life. Amos Hall was 
shot through the mouth. One said, 'Old Reed ain't dead.' 'Which 
is him? ' was asked. ' Why, there the old devil is looking at you.' But 
Pat Ross got the balls and he was killed. Another ruffian said, ' See 
that man humped up, he ain't dead.' The man ' humped up ' was 
Austin Hall, and his body was perfectly rigid. One of those finishing 
the butchery kicked Mr. Hall, rolled him over, and remarked, ' He's as 
dead as the devil,' and so let him alone. Mr. Hall was the only man 
not hit." 

Here is Hamilton's massacre. Can it be paralleled? It 
would seem impossible, yet Brown's massacre of May 24, 
1856, was the object lesson which Hamilton was imitating. 
Some testimony concerning that massacre reads as follows : 

" On Saturday night about eleven o'clock on the 24th day of May 
last (1856), a party of men came to our house; we had all retired; they 
roused us up, and told us that if we would surrender they would not hurt 
us. They said they were from the army ; they were armed with pistols 
and knives ; they took off my father and two of my brothers, William 
and Drury. We were all alarmed. They made inquiries about Mr. 
Wilkinson, and about his horses. The next morning was Sunday, the 
25th of May, 1856. I went in search of my father and two brothers. 
I found my father and one brother, William, lying dead in the road, 



396 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

about two hundred yards from the house ; I saw my other brother lying 
dead on the ground, about one hundred and fifty yards from the house, 
in the grass, near a ravine ; his fingers were cut off ; his head was cut 
open ; there was a hole in his breast. William's head was cut open, 
and a hole was also in his side. My father was shot in the forehead 
and stabbed in the breast. * * * 

"John Doyle." 

"That on Saturday, the 24th day of May, a.d. 1856, about eleven 
o'clock at night, after we had all retired, my husband, James P. Doyle, 
myself, and five children, four boys and one girl, * * * we heard 
some persons come into the yard and rap at the door and call for 
Mr. Doyle, my husband. This was about eleven o'clock on Satur- 
day night of the 24th of May last. My husband got up and went 
to the door. Those outside inquired for Mr. Wilkinson and where he 
lived. My husband told them that he would tell them. Mr. Doyle, 
my husband, opened the door, and several came into the house, 
and said they were from the army. My husband was a pro-slavery 
man. They told my husband that he and the boys must surrender, 
they were their prisoners. These men were armed with pistols and 
large knives. They first took my husband out of the house, then they 
took two of my sons — the two oldest ones, William and Drury — out, 
and then took my husband and these two boys, William and Drury, 
away. My son John was spared, because I asked them in tears to 
spare him. In a short time afterwards I heard the report of pistols. I 
heard two reports, after which I heard moaning, as if a person was dy- 
ing; then I heard a wild whoop. They had asked before they went 
away for our horses. We told them that the horses were out on the 
prairie. My husband and two boys, my sons, did not come back any 
more. I went out next morning in search of them, and found my hus- 
band and William, my son, lying dead in the road near together, about 
two hundred yards from the house. My other son I did not see any 
more until the day he was buried. I was so much overcome that I 
went to the house. They were buried the next day. On the day of 
the burying I saw the dead body of Drury. Fear of myself and the 
remaining children induced me to leave the home where we had been 
living. We had improved our claim a little. I left all and went to the 
State of Missouri. j^^^. 

" Mahala X Doyle." 

mark. 

" On the 25th of May last, somewhere between the hours of mid- 
night and daybreak, cannot say exactly at what hour, after all had re- 
tired to bed, we were disturbed by barking of the dog. I was sick with 



brown's massacre. 397 

the measles, and woke up Mr. Wilkinson, and asked if he ' heard the 
noise, and what it meant?' He said it was only some one passing 
about, and soon after was again asleep. It was not long before the dog 
raged and barked furiously, awakening me once more ; pretty soon I 
heard footsteps as of men approaching ; saw one pass by the window, 
and some one knocked at the door. I asked, ' "Who is that? ' No one 
answered. I woke my husband, who asked, 'Who is that?' Some 
one replied, ' I want you to tell me the way to Dutch Henry's.' He 
commenced to tell them, and they said to him, ' Come out and show us.' 
He wanted to go, but I would not let him ; he then told them it was diffi- 
cult to find his clothes, and could tell them as well without going out of 
doors. The men out of doors, after that, stepped back, and I thought 
I could hear them whispering ; but they immediately returned, and, as 
they approached, one of them asked my husband, 'Are you a Northern 
armist? ' He said, 'I am.' I understood the answer to mean that my 
husband was opposed to t*e Northern or free-soil party. I cannot say 
that I understood the question. My husband was a pro-slavery man, 
and was a member of the Territorial Legislature held at Shawnee Mis- 
sion. 

" When my husband said, ' I am,' one of them said, ' You are our 
prisoner. Do you surrender?' He said, 'Gentlemen, I do.' They 
said, ' Open the door.' Mr. W^ilkinson told them to wait till he made 
a light ; and they replied, ' If you don't open it, we will open it for you.' 
He opened the door against my wishes, and four men came in, and my 
husband was told to put on his clothes, and they asked him if there was 
not more men about ; they searched for arms, and took a gun and pow- 
der-flask, all the weapon that was about the house. 

" I begged them to let Mr. Wilkinson stay with me, saying that I 
was sick and helpless, and could not stay by myself. My husband also 
asked them to let him stay with me until he could get some one to wait 
on me ; told them that he would not run off, but would be there the 
next day, or whenever called for. The old man, who seemed to be in 
command, looked at me and then around at the children, and replied, 
' You have neighbors.' I said, ' So I have, but they are not here, and 
I cannot go for them.' The old man replied, ' It matters not,' and told 
him to get ready. My husband wanted to put on his boots and get 
ready, so as to be protected from the damp and night air, but they 
wouldn't let him. They then took my husband away. One of them 
came back and took two saddles ; I asked him what they were going to 
do with him, and he said, ' Take him a prisoner to the camp. ' I wanted 
one of them to stay with me. He said he would, but ' they would not 
let him.' After they were gone, I thought I heard my husband's voice, 
in complaint, but do not know; went to the door, and all was still. 
Next morning Mr. Wilkinson was found about one hundred and fifty 



398 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

yards from the house, in some dead brush. A lady who saw my hus- 
band's body said there was a gash in his head and in his side ; others 
said that he was cut in the throat twice. * * * 

" My husband was a poor man. I am r^ow on my way to Tennessee 
to see my father, William Ball, who lives in Haywood County. I am 
enabled to go by the kindness of friends in this part of Missouri. 

" Some of the men who took my husband away that night were 
armed with pistols and knives. I do not recollect whether all I saw 
were armed. They asked Mr. W. if McMinn did not live near. My 
husband was a quiet man, and was not engaged in arresting or disturb- 
ing anybody. He took no active part in the pro-slavery cause so as to 
aggravate the abolitionists ; but he was a pro-slavery man. Mr. Mc- 
Minn mentioned above is a pro-slavery man ; so also is the said Dutch 

■^'^"'"y" "Louise Jane Wilkinson." 

\^ Old John Brown drew his revolver and shot the old vian Doyle in 
the forehead, and Brown's two youngest sons immediately fell upon the 
younger Doyles with their two-edged swords. 

" One of the young Doyles was stricken down in an instant, but the 
other attempted to escape, and was pursued a short distance by his as- 
sailant and cut down. The company then proceeded down Mosquito 
Creek to the house of Allen Wilkinson. Here the old man Brown, 
three of his sons, and son-in-law, as at the Doyle residence, went to 
the door and ordered Wilkinson to come out, leaving Frederick Brown, 
Winer, and myself standing in the road, east of the house. Wilkinson 
was taken and marched some distance south of his house and slain in 
the road, with a short sword, by one of the younger Browns. After he 
was killed his body was dragged out to one side and left. 

" We then crossed the Potawatomie and came to the house of Henry 
Sherman, generally known as Dutch Henry. Here John Brown and 
the party, excepting Frederick Brown, Winer, and myself, who were 
left outside a short distance from the door, went into the house and 
brought out one or two persons, talked with them some, and then took 
them in again. They afterwards brought out William Sherman, Dutch 
Henry's brother, marched him down into the Potawatomie Creek, where 
he was slain with swords by Brown's two youngest sons, and left lying 
in the creek. * * * "James Townsley." 

The number killed in each case was the same, five ; and 
in neither case was the leader arrested or punished, while in 
one case one of the perpetrators was hanged, William 
Griffith ; and in the other, one was shot, Frederick Brown. 
Griffith had the rope placed about his neck by Hairgrove, 



MRS. DOYLE S LETTER. 399 

one of his victims ; while Frederick Brown was shot, Au- 
gust, 1856, by Martin White, whose house was fired into 
and whose horses were stolen by the Browns in April of the 
same year. The atrocity of these massacres was such that 
it was but human for Mrs. Doyle, when John Brown was to 
be hanged for removing his Republic, formed in Canada, to 
Harper's Ferry, without first obtaining leave from Federal 
authority, to write this man as follows : 

" Chattanooga, Tennessee, November 20, 1859. 
" Johtt Brcnvn: 

" Sir: Although vengeance is not mine, I confess that I do feel 
gratified to hear that you were stopped in your fiendish career at Har- 
per's Ferry, with the loss of your two sons. You can now appreciate 
my distress in Kansas, when you then and there entered my house at 
midnight and arrested my husband and two boys, and took them out in 
the yard, and in cold blood shot them dead in my hearing. You can't 
say you did it to free our slaves ; we had none, and never expected to 
own one ; but it only made me a poor disconsolate widow, with helpless 
children. \Yhile I feel for your folly, I do hope and trust you will 
meet with your just reward. Oh, how it pained my heart to hear the 
dying groans of my husband and children. If this scrawl gives you any 
satisfaction, you are welcome to it. ., j^^^^^^ Doyle." 

" N.B. — My son, John Doyle, whose life I begged of you, is now 
grown up, and is very desirous to be at Charlestown on the day of your 
execution ; would certainly be there if his means would permit it, that 
he might adjust the rope around your neck, if Governor Wise would 
permit. - M. D." 

It was not easy to form a correct view of the responsibil- 
ity for the outrages of the spring of 1858. Persons and 
newspapers took sides, and apparently could see nothing but 
good in one party and nothing but evil in the other. While 
Hamilton was killing Free-State men in Linn County, May 
19, 1858, the Herald of Freedom of May 22d gives the fol- 
lowing account of Montgomery and his followers : 

" ROBBERS. 
" On the nth inst, about four o'clock p.m., a party of twenty men, 
all on horseback, and well armed, commanded by Captain Montgomery, 



400 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



from Sugar Mound, rode up to the store of James M. Wells, at Willow 
Springs, in this county, dismounted, hitched their horses, and entered 
the store. A lady, apprehensive of the character of the movement, 
attempted to cut the horses loose. While doing so, one of the party 
came out with a revolver, and guarded the door. The nineteen persons 
in the inside proceeded to rifle the drawers of their contents, divested 
themselves of their worn-out or soiled clothing, and put on such as they 
could find to supply their place ; robbed Mr. Wells of his pocket-book, 
and searched him for his arms ; then calicoes and all sorts of fabrics 
were tied up in buffalo robes, handkerchiefs, etc. ; and packages thus 
made up, with boots, shoes, and numberless other articles, to the 
amount of between three and four hundred dollars, were added to the 
plunder, and thus loaded they rode away. 

" The same party visited Mr. McKinney that night, plundered the 
house of all the money they could find, set it on fire, stole a mule and 
horse, and then rode off. The fire was extinguished, hence the house 
was not destroyed. 

" On Sunday, the same party were seen prowling about Minneola, 
and a descent was contemplated upon some pro-slavery men in that 
neighborhood. The policy seems to be to rob, pillage, and drive out 
every pro-slavery man in Kansas, and Montgomery and his banditti are 
the instrumentalities employed for that purpose. 

"They have visited Olathe, robbing a store there. From thence 
they proceeded to Gardner and McCammish, committing depredations 
at each of those places. 

"These same men have been prowling about the Territory for 
months, committing all sorts of depredations, and keeping the country 
in a constant ferment. They are, to a great extent, responsible for the 
troubles around Fort Scott. We have heard of them repeatedly, and 
been told of their visiting private residences, compelling families to rise 
at midnight and cook meals for them, and then renewing their journey 
and visiting some new place, where the same excesses are repeated. 
Horses, guns, revolvers, etc., are almost invariably taken wherever 
found ; and in some instances drafts have been drawn upon Government 
officials to pay for articles thus taken. Several stores have been pil- 
laged, and the money or proceeds have gone to enrich these freebooters. 

" In the letter of Mr. Whitman, which we publish this week, this 
band of land pirates are thus undoubtedly alluded to : 

" ' We feel grateful for your sympathy; and for force we shall have 
no occasion, I hope ; but if so, a small domestic one will do the work 
effectually ! ' 

" We have said, time and time again, that the policy of Lane, Con- 
way and company was to embroil this Territory in civil strife. Here 
is the proof. Here are the overt acts of a set of scoundrels who are 



MONTGOMERY'S RAID. 40I 

plundering stores and dwellings in open day, and committing violence 
upon the inhabitants. An individual is marked by them for destruction, 
the fiat goes forth, and he disappears — v^^here, no one can tell. His 
property is confiscated, and thus one after another of our population 
is wiped out. 

" We are frank to confess that we have no love for these things. 
They must be stopped, and immediately, else civil war must follow. 
Life nor property is safe! The horrors of 1856 are being inaugurated. 
A guerrilla party, in the time of profound peace — their object, plunder 
— is among us. What shall be done? Should not the people meet for 
advisement, and pledge themselves to each other to stop this high- 
handed procedure at once, and declare all persons outlaws who are 
known to be engaged with such parties ? * * * 

" Can't something be done to stop this robbing of men in various 
parts of the Territory? If there is no other way, a company of reliable 
men should be organized, whose province it should be to ferret them 
out and shoot them down like dogs. These men constitute a regular 
banditti, organized to rob and plunder, and they deserve any punish- 
ment which an outraged public are disposed to bestow upon them. 
The people of the various towns should hold meetings, and band to- 
gether to put an end to this." 

By comparing dates it will be seen that it was while 
Montgomery was thus engaged in Johnson and Douglas 
Counties the Hamilton massacre occurred. 

To show the partisan spirit of the times, the following 
quotations are made from the Herald of Freedom and Law- 
rence Republican. The editors of these papers were among 
the ablest ever in Kansas, and were doubtless sincere and 
meant to be truthful, but viewed matters from different 
standpoints and received their information from opposing 
factions : 

" But those men who desired revolution, who had been sojourning 
for a whole year in Kansas, a^td living upon funds sent here by the 
benevolent in the East to relieve the wants of the destitute — they suddenly 
appeared upon the southern border, and upon the most flimsy pretext 
plunged the country again in blood. The fiery eloquence of some of 
the leaders of that warlike expedition has been previously detailed, when 
the convention of the 22d and 23d of December, 1857, was in session! 
Our readers too well remember the destruction of the ballot-box by 
Montgomery at Sugar Mound, and the drawing of knives and revolvers 



402 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



at Clinton on those who wished to vote for officers under the Lecomp- 
ton Constitution to defeat its action, and all the various expedients then 
resorted to to kindle a flame in southern Kansas ; how party after party 
left Lawrence, taking with them our brass howitzer, and subsisting by 
pillage, and returning in due time with stolen horses. These expedi- 
tions were all sustained by Redpath and his associates, and the Law- 
rence Kepicblicmi, Leavenworth Times and Crusader of Freedom were 
the organs of those forays. * * * 

" But it is denied that the objects of Redpath, Lane, Thacher, 
Vaughan, Conway, et omne genus, were revolutionary, and when we 
make these charges against them they only resist by pronouncing them 
false. We assert before Heaven, that the plan of a servile negro in- 
surrection on the border of Missouri was divulged to us by a leading 
Free-State man while a prisoner near Lecompton, in the summer of 
1856; and that it was designed to be participated in by Free-State men 
in Kansas, who were to furnish arms and counsel ; and that it was de- 
signed to extend until the whole Union should become involved in it, 
and a dissolution should follow, and American slavery be wiped out in 
blood. We assert, further, that we resolved to stem this tide, though 
it should cost us our life ; and when the Herald of Freedom was revived 
in the fall of that year, we several times showed what our position would 
be in a contest of this character. The whole movement on our southern 
border has been a carrying out of the programme of the revolutionists, 
and our hostility to it is but in furtherance of the position taken in '56. 
The evidence is indubitable that Captain Brown came on from the East, 
endorsed by prominent disunionists, to head a revolutionary movement, 
and he only left the Territory, as Redpath had done before him, when 
all hopes of success had failed. 

" We are conscious that our positions are bold and startling to many, 
and perhaps will be believed by but few ; yet we have evidence which 
will be satisfactory to any one, and would establish the fact before any 
intelligent jury. 

"It is well established that Thacher, Vaughan, Conway, Phillips, 
Hinton, Redpath, old Brown, Montgomery, Lane, etc., all co-operated 
in their views, and all worked together in advocacy of the various posi- 
tions which have come before the country since 1856; and all have been 
opposing a peaceful solution of the Kansas problem. * * * 

"It is but the work of a moment to connect the persons whose 
names are given above in a common enterprise, and that to prolong our 
Kansas troubles to the latest possible period. True, Lane and Redpath 
fell out, still it was not because they did not agree in ' the great crusade 
for freedom,' as they called it, but, as Redpath claimed, because he 
could not enter, heart and soul, into Lane's plans of private assassina- 
tion. 



"HERALD OF FREEDOM" AND "REPUBLICAN." 403 

" Redpath has just published a book entitled ' The Roving Editor, 
or Talks with Slaves in the Southern States,' published by A. B. Bur- 
dick, New York. The work is dedicated to ' Old John Brown.' Turn- 
ing to page 300, we find the following paragraph, which we copy ver- 
batim and entire : 

" ' I believed that a civil war between the North and South would 
ultimate in insurrection, and that the Kansas troubles would probably 
create a military conflict of the sections. Hence, I left the South, and 
went to Kansas ; and endeavored, personally and by my pen, to precipi- 
tate a revolution. That we failed, for I was not alone in this desire, was 
owing to the influence of prominent Republican statesmen, whose un- 
fortunate conservative character of counsel, which it was impossible 
openly to resist, effectually baffled all our hopes — hopes which Demo- 
cratic action was auspiciously promoting.' " — Herald of Freedom. 

"HOW STANDS THE RECORD? 

" After an excited and heated contest, with the clearing away of the 
smoke and the cessation of the din of strife, men naturally wish to know 
whether they have made a drawn battle or proved triumphant. With 
no feeling of exultation or overbearing triumph, we desire to review the 
position which the Republican took with regard to the Southern 
troubles, and know whether we were justly subjected to the railing and 
offensive accusations of the Lecompton Democrat and kindred journals, 
both in this place and elsewhere in the Territory. 

" After Denver had visited southern Kansas, we understood from a 
hundred different sources that the basis of the settlement of the troubles 
there was the blotting out of the past, the opening of new books, and a 
clean page to start anew with. The people there, we knoiv, understood 
the settlement that way. In the popular language of Linn and Bourbon 
counties, we believed ' by-gones were to be by-gones.' We honestly 
understood the settlement in this way ; and when hostilities broke out 
there, we frankly stated it to be the result of the infringement of the 
Denver treaty. At this statement a great howl was raised by the pro- 
slavery organs, charging us with being supporters of 'jay-hawkers,' 
' murderers,' ' outlaws,' and Heaven knows what all. Well, we pa- 
tiently endured abuses, and, though traduced, answered not. 

' ' A copy of the treaty M'as flung in our face, and we were told, 
' Read that and be abashed ! ' Well, it was a staggering document, and 
we could only reply, ' The people in Linn and Bourbon counties un- 
derstood the treaty as we have given it.' 

" At last. Truth, slower of foot by one-half than Error, makes her 
appearance. It seems there was a treaty, the treaty, which distinctly 
gave the people there to understand that the past should be buried — 



404 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

that all things should be made new. This was what the people under- 
stood. Then there was the written treaty, which we published some 
weeks ago. It, of course, contained no clause blotting out the past, 
since Governor Denver would hardly dare to go so far as that ; for al- 
though the only way to secure peace, yet to the uninitiated, to the out- 
siders, it would have borne a bad look. But that he assured the people 
that they should not be harassed by the past, we are assured by the 
most undoubted testimony. 

" When this agreement was violated, we protested against it. For 
the sake of peace, we insisted upon the religious observance of the 
Denver compact. Our voice was not heeded. The past was harrowed 
up ; old offenders and outlaws were invited to come back ; peaceful 
settlers were harassed with the fear of indictments and prosecutions. 
The country was alive with excitement. Our readers know what fol- 
lowed. Troops marched and remarched; Missourians enlisted into 
posses ; men were hunted down like wolves or rabid dogs, and houses 
were rifled in the name of peace. And now comes the close. 

" The Legislature step in and authoritatively declare, as Denver and 
the people had declared nine months before, ' By-gones shall be by- 
gones.' They who had clamored loudest for vengeance upon Mont- 
gomery and the people were the most earnest in procuring the passage 
of the 'Amnesty Act.' 

" With this review we close, sincerely hoping this is the last article 
we shall ever be called upon to pen respecting troubles in southern 
Kansas." — Lawrence Republican. 

After the massacre by Hamilton both parties were struck 
with terror, and the people, irrespective of party, cried for a 
cessation of this mode of warfare. Governor Denver, early 
in June, visited southern Kansas, arriving at Fort Scott on 
the 13th. He had invited Judge J. W. Wright and Robin- 
son to accompany him. A mass meeting was held on the 
14th, which was attended by both parties. After speeches 
by Governor Denver, Wright, Ransom, and Robinson, a 
settlement was effected. The old county officers were asked 
to resign and new ones were selected by a vote of the people 
present, and Governor Denver appointed them. It was 
recommended that old scores should be forgotten, although 
the written agreement left all criminal matters to the grand 
jury. Montgomery did not meet Governor Denver, although 
he talked with Wright and Robinson and expressed himself 



BROWN'S RETURN TO KANSAS. 405 

as much pleased with the settlement. A military company, 
commanded by Captain Weaver, was furnished to keep the 
peace, and for several months quiet reigned. At length 
some men procured the indictment of a Free-State man 
named Rice for an old offense and had him arrested. 
Montgomery claimed that this was in violation of the under- 
standing, and gathered his forces again. By this time John 
Brown had returned to southern Kansas, because of an ex- 
posure to Senator Wilson and others of his plans to attack 
Virginia, by his drill-master, Hugh Forbes. 

In Cook's confession another reason is given for Brown's 
visit to Kansas in 1858. Cook says: 

" In his [Brown's] trip East he did not realize the amount of money 
that he expected. The money had been promised bona fide, but owing 
to the tightness of the money market they failed to comply with his de- 
mands. The funds were necessary to the accomplishment of his plans. 
I afterwards learned that there was a lack of confidence in his scheme. 
It was therefore necessary that a movement should be made in an- 
other direction, to demonstrate the practicability of his plan. This he 
made about a year ago, by his invasion of Missouri, and the taking of 
about a dozen slaves, together with horses, cattle, etc., into Kansas, 
in defiance of the United States marshal and his posse. From Kansas 
he took them to Canada via Iowa City and Cleveland. At the latter 
place he remained some days, and, I think, disposed of his horses there. 
It seems that the United States marshal was afraid to arrest him, and 
this was all that was wanting to give confidence to the wavering in the 
practicability of his plan and its ultimate success." 

His men were on hand, including Kagi, his secretary of 
war. Montgomery kept Brown in the background, as, he 
said, if he should have command there would not be left 
one stone upon another of Fort Scott. The town was en- 
tered. Rice rescued, and Mr. Little killed, and his store 
robbed of $7000 worth of goods. From this time until the 
passage of the amnesty law by the Legislature anarchy 
reigned supreme, and thieves, robbers, and murderers plied 
their calling with great success. John Brown and his party 
were in their glory. In December he made his trip to Mis- 



4o6 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

souri and brought back with him eleven slaves, some horses, 
oxen, and other property, one man being killed. 

George A. Crawford, a Free-State Democrat of Fort Scott, 
had an interview with Brown about this raid, and wrote the 
following to Eli Thayer : 

"As to the raid into Missouri, it was made on the 20th December, 
1858, four days after the raid into Fort Scott. It was led by Captain 
Brown in person. Captain Montgomery refused to go along — pro- 
tested, as I have understood, against it — but came to the aid of the 
Kansas settlers when retaliatory raids were afterwards expected. The 
Captain's company marched down the Little Osage River, in the north 
part of this county, and about twelve miles from here, and proceeded 
into Vernon County, Missouri, a distance of three or four miles. 

" The Missouri Devioc7-at of December 30, 1858, gave the Missouri 
statement of the losses. I presume it is correct. Files of other papers 
of the period would show. It states that they ' murdered ' David Crews 
(or Cruise), ' kidnapped a negro woman,' took wagon, horses, etc., 
and robbed Mr. Martin and family of a fine mule ; took from the estate 
of James Lawrence, in possession of his son-in-law, Henry Hicklin, 
five negroes, two horses, one yoke of cattle, an ox-wagon, a double- 
barrel shot-gun, saddle, and clothing. From Isaac B. LaRue, five 
negroes, six horses, one yoke of cattle, clothing, and took prisoners 
whom they released. 

" In the conversation to which I have alluded. Captain Brown said 
he had sent the slaves on to their freedom ; that they had earned the 
property of their masters ; and that his young men were entitled to for- 
age to the extent of their subsistence. He denied the current rumor 
that the slaves had been taken away by violence and against their will. 

"As to the killing of Cruise, he said that he had given strict orders 
for the careful use of the guns ; and that there should be no firing un- 
less resistance was offered. He had divided his men into two squads, 
one on each side of the stream. In the house of Cruise one of his 
quick-blooded young men, supposing that Cruise was about to draw a 
weapon, had fired, killing him instantly. I inferred that the Captain 
was not present. He claimed to have reprimanded the young man for 
his haste. 

"Cruise was a good citizen — a plain, unoffending farmer. It was 
reported that he had no weapons on his person. The killing of him 
was an unjustifiable outrage, and it subjected our settlements to great 
danger from retaliatory measures. 

" I protested to the Captain against this violence. We were settlers, 
he was not. He could strike a blow and leave. The retaliatory blow 



CRAWFORD TO THAYER. 407 

would fall on us. Being a Free-State man, I myself was held person- 
ally responsible by pro-slavery ruffians in Fort Scott for the acts of 
Captain Brown. 

" One of these ruffians, Brockett, when they gave me notice to leave 
the town, said : ' When a snake bites me, I don't go hunting for that 
particular snake. I kill the first snake I come to.' 

" I called Captain Brown's attention to the facts that we were at 
peace with Missouri ; that our Legislature was then in the hands of 
Free-State men to make the laws ; that even in our disturbed counties 
of Bourbon and Linn we were in a majority, and had elected the offi- 
cers both to make and execute the laws ; that without peace we could 
have no immigration ; that no Southern immigration was coming ; that 
agitation such as his was only keeping our Northern friends away, 
etc. 

" The old man replied that it was no pleasure to him, an old man, 
to be living in the saddle, away from home and family, and exposing 
his life ; and if the Free-State men of Kansas felt they no longer needed 
him, he would be glad to go. 

" He seemed very erratic — at war with all our accustomed ideas on 
the slavery question — but very earnest. 

" I think the conversation made an impression on him, for he soon 
after went to his self-sacrifice at Harper's Ferry. 
" Yours, 

" George A. Crawford." 

The nature of the difficulties in southern Kansas is thus 
set forth by two correspondents in the Herald of Freedom of 
January 8, 1859 : 

"THE DIFFICULTIES SOUTH. 

" A friend writes us from Mound City, Linn County, on the 26th 
ult., in which he says : 

" ' I regret to observe that there are newspapers in Kansas, whose 
editors profess to be governed by principle, which continue to uphold 
the crimes daily perpetrated, by sustaining highway robbery, murder, 
and the expulsion of our population from Kansas, because of a mere 
difference of opinion. These journals have done more to prolong our 
troubles than all other causes. If such editors have no sense of moral 
justice, and cannot be influenced otherwise, the indignation of the whole 
country should be roused against them. 

" ' I have lived in Linn County since October, 1855, and have seen 
enough of crimes of every grade, perpetrated both by night and day, to 
satisfy any man not steeped in crime. Little did I think, in '56, that 



4o8 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

professedly Free-State men would be guilty of the same crimes for 
which we denounced the pro-slavery men of that year, and which raised 
such a storm throughout the nation. 

" ' Men of sense ought to know that the daily repetition of crime 
will never restore peace. They ought to know that outrage begets out- 
rage, and the longer it is continued the farther we are from an honorable 
and peaceful adjustment of our difficulties. 

" ' Your comments on the late Convention here were very just. 
Though it was agreed that the troubles should cease, and all parties 
should lay down their arms, yet the Montgomery faction, in the face of 
that compromise, raised a body of men, marched to Fort Scott, liberated 
a prisoner there under indictment by a Free-State grand jury for murder, 
robbed a store of some five thousand dollars' worth of goods, rifled 
trunks of their contents, and shot down one of the citizens of the town, 
and held others prisoners as long as it suited their caprice. I confess 
I cannot see the difference between those crimes committed by these 
Free-State men, and the burning of hotels and dwellings, the destroy- 
ing of printing-offices, and the outrages in Lawrence in May of '56. 
It only proves that human nature, under the influence of a bad heart, is 
about the same everywhere. 

" ' The ordering off of citizens, the stealing of horses, mules, and 
cattle, the plundering of houses, and the stealing of negroes still goes 
on, and will, until the strong arm of the law is made eff'ective against 
crime and violence.' 

" Another gentleman, a clergyman, writing us from the vicinity of 
Moneka, says : 

" ' I have watched the progress of these troubles here until I am 
sick, heart-sick with humanity. Here are men claiming to be Chris- 
tians, and even ministers of the Gospel, who profess to be guided in 
their actions by the teaching of the Prince of Peace, who have organ- 
ized a body of murderers, robbers, gamblers, and horse-thieves, and 
subsisting by plunder, they are riding over the country and committing 
the basest of crimes. If this is Christianity, anything would be prefer- 
able to it; but it is not! Christ taught no such sentiments, but the 
reverse ! 

" ' The strangest of all is to see peace men, those in the States who 
were members of peace societies, and who were sending delegates to 
peace congresses, laboring to inaugurate civil war, with the expressed 
object of working a revolution throughout the nation, ultimating in a 
dissolution of the Union ; and all to procure the emancipation of the 
slave. Simple men! They should learn that revolutions involving 
such grave consequences are not usually set on foot by murderers and 
thieves. Though Brutus triumphed over the dead corpse of Cjesar, yet 
it is not believed that in this age of enlightenment a few ignoramuses 



SHERIFF WALKER'S REPORT. 409 

and desperadoes of the character of those in this county can succeed in 
crushing out slavery, and with it American freedom. 

"'We thank you most heartily for the manly and independent 
course of the Herald of Freedom throughout this protracted contest. It 
has been a terror to those wretches who have been involved in those 
crimes, and has been the only restraint which has been exerted over 
them. Had other journalists showed the same spirit and devotion to 
the right, our troubles would have ended a year ago ; but while Mont- 
gomery and his followers are backed up by the hireling press, so long 
will he continue to ride rough-shod over the country, setting the laws 
at defiance, and stamping his iron heel into the breasts of his victims ; 
so long will all right be disregarded, and our beautiful country, the 
loveliest heaven has ever smiled upon, will be the home of an organized 
banditti as desolating in its consequences as were those of Spain or 
Italy in the darkest period of the world's history.' " 

The Herald of Freedom of January i, 1859, makes this 
comment upon Colonel Samuel Walker's report of his trip : 

"FROM THE SOUTH. 

" Captain Samuel Walker, the present sheriff of Douglas County, a 
gentleman whose word was never contradicted by any party, has just 
returned from a visit to Linn and Bourbon counties, where he has been 
on a commission from the Governor, inquiring into the truth of the 
difficulties in that quarter. His recital of outrages practiced by the 
INIontgomery faction upon persons there is enough to draw tears from 
the eyes of any one not hardened in crime. Outrages, he states, have 
been committed by those desperadoes equalling in atrocity those of the 
vilest border ruffians in the campaign of 1856. Captain Walker states 
that there has been a great revulsion in public sentiment there within 
the last few weeks. Everywhere he met men who had sustained Mont- 
gomery in the past, who now say they can do it no longer. He has 
gathered about him all the desperadoes of the Free-State party, and 
they live by plunder and crime. No man is safe among them. At 
Fort Scott the Captain found the whole country gathering in there with 
their property, to protect themselves from these freebooters. The pro- 
fessed object of this banditti is to inaugurate a civil war and bring on a 
dissolution of the Union, and to that end all their exertions are directed. 

" We hear from other sources that Captain Brown is a compeer of 
Montgomery, and that only a few days ago he made a marauding ex- 
pedition into Missouri, and after committing various ' excesses,' armed 
a party of slaves, mounted them on horses, and marched them over into 
Kansas. Thus outrage after outrage is committed, and newspapers 



4IO 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



professing respectability endorse them, and urge on their perpetrators to 
the commission of greater crimes." 

January 15, 1859, the Herald of Ftredotn gives what it 
caUs " a review " of the troubles, as follows : 

"A REVIEW. 

" The fire-eating portion of the Territorial Legislature, and the ex- 
treme radicals in general, who are sustaining Montgomery in his mur- 
derous movements in the southern part of the Territory, are now rejoic- 
ing over the fact that the quasi-general Lane has written a letter to 
Governor Medary, informing that gentleman that if the Governor will 
invest him with authority for that purpose, he will go South, take 
Montgomery and Brown, or any of their command, and bring them to 
Lawrence, or wherever the Governor may direct, and that without the 
aid of 2i fosse, or any assistance whatever. How this may appear to 
others, we cannot say, but to us it is conclusive evidence of the com- 
plicity of Lane in those disturbances. He commissioned Montgomery 
upwards of a year ago, and set him to work in southern Kansas to fight 
pro-slavery men. Lane visited that quarter in person, and pretended 
to be the ' commander-in-chief of the military forces of Kansas.' There 
is not a doubt but that he directed the original movements in that quar- 
ter. Many of our readers will remember his celebrated coup (/' ctat on 
the evening of the 22d of December, 1857, at the territorial convention 
then in session in Lawrence, when an express from Lane's army en- 
tered that convention, and announced, almost breathless, that ' war has 
actually begun.' ' Why will you stand here,' he said, ' and talk about 
voting for officers under the Lecompton Constitution, thinking thereby 
to defeat it, when your brethren in the southern part of the Territory 
are already in arms? It is the duty of every man here to rush at once 
to the scene of the contest, and shoulder to shoulder with General Lane 
and his able associates. Captain IMontgomery and others, drive back the 
invaders of our Territory to the State from which they came.' And 
with a peroration worthy of Patrick Henry in the most trying hour of 
our revolutionary history, his arm extended to heaven, his voice gently 
raised, and every gesture adapted to the sublime occasion, he declared, 
' I would sooner cut off my right arm than cast a vote for any ofificer 
under that constitution.' 

" It was then, when the excitement was at its height, and 'Inton 
stood on tiptoe, swinging his hat, and hallooing with all his might, and 
the lesser lights, such as Thacher, Phillips and Company, were echoing 
the shout, that S. N. Wood stepped forward, his patriotism appar- 
ently swelled to the sticking-point, and called for volunteers to start the 



"HERALD OF FREEDOM'S" REVIEW. 41 I 

next morning towards Fort Scott, to stand by General Lane and his 
brave comrades, in their extremity. The messenger reported the men 
suffering for the necessaries of life! They needed guns, and munitions 
of war of all descriptions, and at that hour mostly provisions. Said he : 
' I divided my last biscuit with some of these men this morning, and 
have ridden eighty miles without hardly gettmg out of my saddle, to bring 
you this startling intelligence.' Mr. Wood was more enthusiastic in 
calling for volunteers than usual. He recapitulated what the messenger 
had said. That whole convention, consisting of what purported to be 
delegates from every part of the Territory, called together at an inclem- 
ent season to consult upon the destinies of the Territory, with free- 
dom or slavery before it, M'as suspended in its action while these war 
incidents were being enacted, but Mr. Wood could get ' nary ' volunteer. 
Dr. Robinson, who was chairman of the convention, for merely sug- 
gesting that the whole thing was a ruse gotten up to affect the action of 
the convention, became seriously involved with some of the 'Inton fac- 
tion, and for a time it seemed probable we might have a fight in the 
Kansas valley. 

" The convention finally decided not to participate in the election, 
and the next day after, Lane appeared in our streets, and his friends 
laughed at the successful stratagem employed to bring about the result. 

" From that day the excitement South has gone on. In February 
or March, Lane issued his memorable letter to Montgomery ordering 
him to disband ; but Montgomery has stated, to gentlemen whose verac- 
ity cannot be questioned, that while he was in receipt of these letters 
for the public eye, he was in receipt of private letters from that same 
General Lane, applauding him for his acts and advising him to push 
matters to even greater extremes than he felt justified in doing. We 
have not the most remote doubt that every important movement of Mont- 
gomery's, from the destruction of the ballot-box at Mound City on the 
4th of January, a year ago, down to the release of Rice at Fort Scott, 
who was indicted for murder by a Free-State grand jury, was advised 
and directed by Lane ; and his letter to Governor Medary is all the proof 
needed to establish that he is a particeps criminis in all that has been 
done thus far! 

"The rebuke which Governor Medary has given Lane was well 
merited. Had the Governor added that he did not feel justified in em- 
ploying those whose hands were yet wet with innocent blood to arrest 
other men guilty of similar crimes, the reproof would have been none 
too severe." 

Some of the turbulent men in southern Kansas were very 
reluctant to abandon their unlawful career. As late as the 



412 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

fall of i860 they were on the war-path. Notwithstanding 
the Free-State men were in full control of the machinery for 
punishing criminals, excepting only the district judges, in 
November of that year, Samuel Scott, a well-to-do pro- 
slavery man, and Russell Hinds were hung by Jennison's 
men, one of them on a charge of returning a fugitive slave 
to his master. The law for this hanging was found in Ex- 
odus, 2ist chapter and i6th verse : " And he that stealeth a 
man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall 
surely be put to death." Montgomery endorsed this hang- 
ing in a note to Judge Hanway as follows : 

" Russ. Hinds, hung on the 12th day of November, i860, for man- 
stealing. He was a drunken border ruffian, worth a great deal to hang, 
but good for nothing else. He had caught a fugitive slave, and carried 
him back to Missouri for the sake of a reward. He was condemned by 
a jury of twelve men, the law being found in the i6th verse of Exodus 
xxi." 

Had it not been for the revulsion of feehng such proceed- 
ings caused in the Territory, these men would indefinitely 
have prosecuted their nefarious business in the name of God. 
No man is so unreasonable, arbitrary, and cruel as he who 
imagines he is commissioned by God, as was Joshua, to in- 
flict punishment upon His enemies. The laws of mind and 
matter are ignored for the simple " Thus saith the Lord," 
which comes to his inner consciousness ; and that command 
will invariably be in harmony with his wishes, or righteous (?) 
indignation or depraved nature or instincts. Whether such 
kill a President, as did Guiteau ; a daughter, as did Free- 
man ; pro-slavery men, as did Brown, Montgomery, and 
Jennison ; or a Free-State or any other man who might cross 
his path, as did Lane — such men are more dangerous than 
ten times their number who acknowledge accountabiUty to 
the immutable laws of cause and effect, and the rights of 
their fellow-men. 

By this time Free-State men were becoming sick of 
such performances, and were outspoken in their condemna- 



BROWN LEAVES KANSAS. 413 

tion. A. Wattles, with whom Brown often made his home, 
in his testimony before the Senate Harper's Ferry Commit- 
tee, on page 223 of the report, says: 

" He called in to see me * * * in going out of the Territory, and I 
censured him for going into Missouri contrary to our agreement, and 
getting those slaves. He said, ' I considered the matter well ; you will 
have no more attacks from Missouri ; I shall now leave Kansas ; prob- 
ably you will never see me again ; I consider it my duty to draw the 
scene of the excitement to some other part of the country.' " 

Here is more evidence that his mission was to cause dis- 
turbance and not quiet ; war and not peace. 

He told the writer substantially the same. He said, 
" From the standpoint of a free State the party have acted 
wisely and have succeeded ; but from my standpoint they 
have failed. Nothing but war can extinguish slavery, and 
the sooner war is inaugurated the better." Had he lived 
through the RebeUion, he would have learned that the North 
had all it could do to save the nation and abolish slavery 
when it had possession of the Government; and had the 
war commenced while the Government was in the posses- 
sion of the South, it would have ended, as it commenced, 
with slavery intact. At least, so reasoned some of the Free- 
State men. Their policy was to have all the Territories 
enter the Union as free States and abolish slavery in them 
by the votes of the inhabitants. After Kansas was secure, 
Thayer commenced the colonization of Virginia and Ten- 
nessee, and had not the South rebelled, slavery would have 
been peaceably voted out of existence in a few years, with- 
out the killing of one million of men and the expending and 
destruction of biUions of wealth. The men and treasure 
sacrificed were of tenfold more value than all the slaves in 
the nation, if not in the world. All this would have been 
saved had not the Southern States repeated Brown's mistake 
of making war upon the Federal Government. 

The amnesty bill was passed by the Legislature in Feb- 
ruary, 1859, with the concurrence of all parties, and the war 



414 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

was at an end ; and as Brown " drew the scene of the ex- 
citement " to Harper's Ferry, peace was permanent. 

The historian of the future will note these facts, among 
others, relative to the distiurbances in Kansas during 1857 
and 1858: 

First, after the arrival of Geary there was no longer need 
of solicitude for the peace of the Territory as there had been 
before that time, as the Federal Government had abandoned 
the attempt to establish slavery in Kansas by force. This 
became still more evident on the arrival of Stanton and 
Walker. As early as July, 1857, all indications pointed to 
the taking possession of the Territorial Legislature in Octo- 
ber by the Free-State men, and after the Grasshopper Falls 
convention there was no doubt of it. At length the Territo- 
rial Legislature was secured, under Walker and Stanton as 
executive officers, who were as favorable to an honorable 
administration of the Government as would have been 
Seward, Chase, or Sumner. 

Second, notwithstanding this condition of affairs, a certain 
class of men, notably Lane, Brown, and Montgomery, and 
their followers, were more active in warlike demonstrations 
than ever before. Messengers were sent East for the sinews 
of war ; " Generals " Lane and Brown were in vigorous cor- 
respondence on war movements diu^ing the summer and fall 
of 1857 — as earnestly after securing the Legislature as be- 
fore ; a scheme was concocted by Lane to assassinate the 
members of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, 
which, had it been carried out, could have but resulted in 
open war ; an illegal enactment was procured creating a 
" Military Board," with Lane at its head ; as general-in-chief 
of this " Board " he proposed a general massacre of pro- 
slavery men in the various towns of the Territory ; and when 
all these movements were defeated by their own party in 
central and northern Kansas, the whole crowd, under Lane, 
Brown, and Montgomery, set up business in southern Kan- 
sas, and did everything in their power to inaugurate civil 



ARTS OF PEACE. 415 

war ; and but for the interference of conservative Free-State 
men they would have succeeded. When the Free-State men 
secured the Territorial Legislature, the local officers and ju- 
ries, they were responsible for the peace of the Territory, and 
had ample remedy through the courts for all grievances ; but 
it was just at that juncture when these men became the most 
belligerent, and murder, robbery, and outrage were most 
rampant in southern Kansas. It is not easy to decide which 
the Free-State cause had more to fear, the pro-slavery party, 
sustained by the Administration, Congress, and the South, or 
these thieves, marauders, and revolutionists. It was almost 
a miracle that the first were " thwarted, baffled, and circum- 
vented," and it is a double miracle that the second did not 
wreck the cause and involve the nation in civil war. Had 
these men been permitted to have their way. Brown would 
have been hanged in Kansas instead of Virginia, and 
two of his companions would have been Lane and Mont- 
gomery. There is little doubt that such will be the verdict 
of history. 

Thus far attention has been chiefly directed to civil and 
political conflicts in the early days, but these were not all of 
Kansas. It is true that the pioneers kept their armor in 
readiness, whether for war or politics, but all except profes- 
sional politicians engaged in the various industries which 
thrive in times of peace. Agriculture, manufactures, house 
and town building, engaged the attention of most of the 
settlers, while speculation in town lots and shares was by no 
means overlooked. The towns most prominent during the 
pohtical and civil strife of 1854-58 were Leavenv/orth, the 
home of wealth and conservatism ; Atchison, the home of 
the Stringfellows and the Squatter Sovereign; Fort Scott, 
the seat of the Land Office ; Topeka, the State capital city, 
founded m December, 1854, by Eastern men, with the best 
town builder in the West, Colonel C. K. Holliday, as gen- 
eral manager, Manhattan, founded by such men as I. T. 
Goodnow, Dr. Dennison, Mead, and Hunting ; Osawatomie, 



4l6 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

under the chief management of O. C. Brown ; Lecompton, 
the territorial capital ; Burlington, Burlingame, Council 
Grove, Emporia, Wabaunsee, and Lawrence. All these 
towns still have a name to live, while many others might be 
named which promised great things, but have lost their im- 
portance, such as Kickapoo, Douglas, Tecumseh, Calhoun, 
Pawnee, Oxford, Council City, Delaware Crossing, Hamp- 
den, Franklin, and others. 

While most of the interior towns were Free-State, the 
Missouri River towns, until after the arrival of Governor 
Geary, were more or less under the control of Slave-State 
men. At Kansas City, Missouri, Governor Reeder was in 
danger of assassination, and remained concealed nearly two 
weeks before escaping in disguise ; at Leavenworth Free- 
State men and women were driven out by the hundred; 
while at Atchison, Pardee Butler, and Kelly could be 
mobbed with impunity. 

After the return of the campaigners for Fremont, it was 
considered important to have a town on the Missouri River 
where Free-State men could be secure from insult or moles- 
tation of any kind. Accordingly, the site, for a time known 
as Quindaro, was purchased and platted by some Free-State 
men in the fall of 1856. This place was advertised as the 
only landing on the river where Free-State men had control, 
and in the spring of 1857 nearly all the immigrants from the 
North seemed bound for Kansas by way of Quindaro. The 
effect upon other localities was miraculous. Wyandotte was 
organized under Free-State auspices, with Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor W. Y. Roberts as ligure-head ; Leavenworth elected 
Free-State officers ; Atchison reorganized with General S. 
C. Pomeroy in the lead ; Doniphan sent for Lane for an 
advertising card, while Sumner could boast an Ingalls ; 
Delaware had a town company hailing from Lawrence ; 
Elwood could show more Free-State young men of promise 
than all the others combined ; while White Cloud had Sol. 
Miller, and the JVhite Cloud Chief, the premium newspaper 



REVOLUTION IN KANSAS TOWNS. 417 

of Kansas. The effect of this revolution in the old towns, 
and the starting of so many new ones, was to distribute the 
transportation and other business where the best accommo- 
dations could be furnished, and many of the mushroom 
towns collapsed, among them the one that had started the 
Free-State town boom. As Kansas City, Missouri, was the 
natural gateway to all the country west of it, and as Colonel 
Kersey Coates, the brainiest man and shrewdest manager in 
Kansas, settled there, this place soon took the lead of all 
others, and has retained it ever since. Even the overflow 
from this city has made the metropolis of the State of Kan- 
sas, called Kansas City, Kansas. 

But something more was needed than a landing on the 
Missouri River. Kansas was being rapidly settled through- 
out its eastern portion for more than one hundred miles 
from water transportation, and some means must be devised 
for transporting farm products, or they would be worthless 
except for home consumption. As Robinson had resigned 
his agency of the Aid Company while a prisoner, and was 
free to enlist in any business that might need his services, 
when the slavery conflict subsided he gave his attention to 
the transportation question. He abandoned politics, as by 
nature he was unfitted to run with a political machine. He 
could agitate, but could not wear a muzzle, and hence would 
be an unavailable candidate and an unsuitable officer for 
any party. He always preferred the unwritten laws of 
the universe to State statutes. Church creeds, or Madam 
Grundy's edicts, and so was necessarily a poor poUtician. 
Being solicited to engage in party politics, he wrote a 
letter to the Herald of Freedom of May 7, 1859. As it 
gives his views of the situation at that time, extracts are 
here given : 

" Lawrence, April 30, 1859. 
" Editor Herald of Freedom : 

" Dear Sir: * * * As you have called me out, I will give a few 
reasons why I shall attend no political convention, either mass, dele- 
27 



41 8 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

gate, or constitutional. As these reasons apply to no one else, they 
will be personal, and perhaps egotistical. 

" In the first place, I am not a politician, never was, and so long as 
I have my reason never mean to be. It is true I voted for Harrison 
for President, because I thought the Whigs honest and the Democrats 
corrupt. Since that time I could see but little difference between them, 
and have voted for no presidential candidate, but have occasionally 
joined in popular movements against both Whigs and Democrats. 

" In California I joined a popular movement to secure the legal 
rights of the citizens against unscrupulous speculators and sharpers, and 
was thrown into prison by one party and into the Legislature by the 
other, but it was not a political contest. 

" In Kansas, not only the political, but the civil, legal, and natural 
rights of the people were being struck down, and I did what I could to 
protect them. At the urgent solicitation of friends I was induced to 
occupy a somewhat prominent position in the contest. Until the defeat 
of the Lecompton Constitution I regarded it as a duty to labor with my 
fellow-citizens to free them from the tyranny that threatened to over- 
whelm and crush out all their constitutional rights. Up to the vote on 
the English Bill, during the whole struggle it was my good fortune to 
approve cordially of the policy of the people of Kansas. It is true, I 
did not agree with the policy adopted at an adjourned delegate conven- 
tion, neither did the people, as was demonstrated at the polls. The de- 
feat of the English Bill was regarded as a complete victory over all out- 
side enemies ; was, accordingly, the signal for the politicians to enter 
the ring, and for all others to retire. From that time I have avoided 
all political gatherings, and turned my attention more particularly to the 
development of the material interests of the Territory. Kansas, al- 
though more beautiful and desirable on some accounts, has probably 
less commercial advantages than any State in the Union. Her lands, 
so rich and beautiful, must lie unimproved and comparatively valueless 
without the means of getting their products to market. Owing to the 
emigration to the gold mines, corn sells at Leavenworth and Kansas 
City for sixty cents per bushel, but it costs fifty cents per hundred, or 
thirty cents a bushel, to carry it from Lawrence to the Missouri River, 
making it worth at this place about thirty cents per bushel, and thirty 
miles southwest of here it is worth nothing for export. In ordinary 
seasons, when corn is worth but twenty-five cents per bushel on the 
river, it will not sell for enough to pay for hauling to market. Should 
things remain as they are, and no railroads be built, the land in Mis- 
souri River counties will increase in value, while the lands of the inte- 
rior cannot rise above the price of grazing lands, or from one to five 
dollars an acre. So with the towns. The river towns will increase in 
importance, as all articles of export must be carried to them by the 



IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPORTATION. 419 

farmer, while the interior towns will lose even their present trade. 
Believing that without the early construction of a system of railroads 
Kansas would experience a stagnation of business that would be ruinous 
alike to all departments of industry, I felt it to be of the highest im- 
portance to seize the first opportunity to procure grants of lands from 
Congress for railroad purposes. 

" Having been placed in a position by the people of Kansas during 
our early struggle that was likely to carry with it some influence, I felt 
it a duty to use that influence for their benefit. Accordingly, I declined 
to be a member of the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention, and 
avoided political controversies, with a view to secure a grant of lands 
while there was land to grant, and when it could be of service to the 
people. I visited three successive sessions of Congress, chiefly for this 
object. Last winter a large and respectable delegation from Kansas 
agreed upon a system of roads, and a grant would probably have been 
made had not the political demagogues interfered. That system would 
have given five, if not six, roads to Lawrence, and would have increased 
the value of every lot in town tenfold, every farm in the county fourfold, 
and every acre of land east of Fort Riley, on an average, twofold. The 
grant was to have been made to the Legislature, and no man at Wash- 
ington would have had the least advantage over any other citizen of the 
Territory. * * * 

" C. ROBINSOX." 



Failing to get action by Congress, R. S. Stevens, S. N. 
Simpson, and Robinson procured the assent of the leading 
men of the Delaware tribe of Indians to make a treaty by 
which their land should be sold in the interest of a railroad 
up the Kansas valley. But when the council was held, the 
agent, being a pro-slavery man, and not liking such men as 
had worked up the treaty, inserted the name of a road run- 
ning from Leavenworth instead of the mouth of the Kansas 
River. When this action became known the Indians signed 
a protest which resulted in a compromise, and the two roads 
Avere provided for, one from Leavenworth and one from 
Wyandotte. Stevens, Simpson, and Robinson became di- 
rectors and stockholders, and all went smoothly till Lane 
was elected to the United States Senate, when, as he was 
hostile to Stevens and Robinson, the latter sold out his inter- 
est and Lane was concihated. The road was, after long 



420 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



delays, constructed, and became the Union Pacific, with a 
large endowment in lands and bonds. This was the begin- 
ning of roads in Kansas, but not the end, as the State is 
gridironed Avith them from end to end, no State of the same 
age equalling it in railroad mileage. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE KILLING OF JENKINS. THE SERVICES OF LANE AND 

BROWN. ADMISSION OF KANSAS TO THE UNION. SECES- 
SION. THE governor's FIRST MESSAGE. 

The year 1858 was noteworthy as completing the conflict 
against Lecompton and territorial usurpation. It was note- 
worthy, also, for the murder of Gaius Jenkins by Colonel 
Lane, over a pretended claim quarrel. As Jenkins was one 
of the treason prisoners confined during the summer of 1856 
with the United States troops, and as this claim question 
may have been one reason why Lane proposed their rescue 
by force, and why he left Lawrence defenseless when the 
two thousand eight hundred Missourians were marching 
against it, a brief statement is made of the character of the 
claim dispute and the killing. 

General James Blood, one of the first and most trust- 
worthy settlers of Kansas, made a statement in 1884, in 
which occurs the following : 

" The claim was located by Gaius Jenkins in the fall of 1854, in my 
presence. The first log-house was built by Jenkins, he furnishing all 
the means and material, and paying Chapman in full for all the work 
done on it by him. Stillman Andrews, with others, dug the well at the 
first log-house built as above stated, and was paid for it by Jenkins. 
The frame house was put up on the claim by Jenkins in September or 
October of 1855. Jenkins had a well dug by the frame house in the 
fall of 1855, sixty odd feet deep, and found no water. Aaron Perry 
and Samuel Fry dug this well. The double log-house was bought by 
Jenkins of Lane, about the last of December, 1855, according to the 
statement of both Jenkins and Lane to me at that time." 



42 2 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

S. C. Russell, Esq., who had charge of the Jenkins estate, 
including the claim contest, says : 

"In 1857 Lane had a pre-emption claim in Doniphan County, 
which I proved by the most reputable citizens in Doniphan and Troy, 
in the summer of i860, Lane in person acting for himself; and I can go 
there now and make the same proof. * * * Lane either built a saw- 
mill on or contracted for one to be built on this Doniphan claim, and 
afterwards sold it out to other parties. * * * 

" Jenkins's hired men had for some time prior to the shooting com- 
plained to Jenkins that Lane had nailed up the gate leading to the well, 
and had threatened to shoot them. Jenkins said he would have to go 
and see if he could get some water. The day he went over there were 
with him his hired man, Ray Green, and two nephews — young boys. 
Jenkins had a pail and an axe, the axe to open the gate, which had been 
spiked and securely fastened up with additional plank and the well 
locked up. * * * The only shots fired were the first one by Lane, 
that killed Jenkins instantly, and the second one by Ray Green, with a 
four-inch Colt's revolver ; he was quite a distance in the rear of Jenkins, 
and must have made a good shot if he hit Lane, which has been doubted 
— the truth of which I know nothing, only by report. * * * 

" Lane said to Judge G. W. Smith, in Smith's office, more than a 
month before he shot Jenkins, that he would shoot him. He said to 

Charles H. Branscomb, ' I will have the blood out of his G d 

d d black heart.' " 

Henry W. Petriken wrote, February 19, 1884: 

" MONTOURSVILLE, Pa., February 19, 1884. 
" S. C. Russell, Esq. : 

" Dear Sir: I remember you very well as the attorney of Jenkins 
— the victim of Lane's murderous villainy — in the case of Jenkins vs. 
Lane before the Local Land Office at Lecompton. 

" I acted as clerk for the greater part of the time, and perhaps the 
whole of it, after the case was reopened in the taking the testimony in 
the case. I do not know what became of the book of testimony in this 
case, unless General Brindle knows something of it. It was probably 
destroyed as waste lumber, or perhaps turned over to General Brindle's 
successor. 

" Soon after the taking of the testimony was finished. Lane seems to 
have thought his case a hopeless, or at least a very doubtful one, as he 
requested me to be at my office on a certain evening a/one and to have 
the book of testimony with me, as he wished to look over it. Lane 
came to my office after I had waited until near midnight, and was dis- 
appointed and disgusted when he found I had not the book with me. 



PETRIKEN, BRINDLE, AND MOORE. 



423 



The case was decided most unequivocally in favor of Jenkins by the 
Local Office. Soon after the Local Office acted on the case Lane re- 
quested another interview, which I granted, and though this talk lasted 
nearly all night, I can sum it all up by saying that the whole object of 
it was to induce me to show General Brindle good and sufficient reasons 
for changing his decision in this case before it was sent to the General 
Land Office. Lane's first inducement was an offer to guarantee to 
Brindle and myself twenty, and afterwards forty, acres of the disputed 
land. After finally convincing Lane that it would be a dangerous ex- 
periment to intimate anything of the kind to General Brindle, he left. 
I did not mention the matter to Brindle then, and indeed I am not 
sure that I ever have since. There are two prominent gentlemen now 
living in Kansas — one a prominent ex-county office-holder at Topeka, 
and the other in the banking business at Emporia — who, I have no doubt, 
will remember this last interview, as at my request they were ivithin 
calling distance, they being at the time in the place of business of the 
former gentleman, one or two doors above my office. 

" Heartily sympathizing in your every effort to protect the memory 
of the murdered Jenkins, I remain, 

' ' Vour well wisher and friend, 

" Henry W. Petriken." 

Extract from General William Brindle's letter of February 
7, 1884: 

" We had decided that Jenkins was entitled to his claim before he 
was killed ; at the time of his death we w-ere hearing the case again (it 
had been sent back to enable Lane to put in additional testimony, which 
we received, but which did not show him to have been the prior settler). 

" William Brindle." 

Eli Moore, son of the register of the Land Office at Le- 
compton, writes this letter to Robinson : 

" Hon. Charles Robinson: 

" My Dear Sir : In answer to your question as to whether or not 
the Land Office at Lecompton had decided in the land case between 
Jenkins and Lane at the time of Jenkins's death, and as to my knowledge 
as to the case itself, will state : That the case had been decided by the 
register and receiver of the Pawnee Land District, then located at Le- 
compton, in favor of Gaius Jenkins and adverse to James PL Lane. 
This decision had been given several weeks before the shooting of Jen- 
kins. Lane was apprised of this decision by the register and receiver, 
and by his attorney in the case, Wilson Shannon. I took all the evi- 



424 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

dence in the case, was and am familiar with the facts in the litigation. 
The Secretary of the Interior had also confirmed the decision of the 
Land Office at Lecompton. All of these facts were in the possession of 
Lane at the time of and before the killing of Jenkins. 

" After Lane was elected United States senator he had the case re- 
opened, and the Secretary of the Interior reversed the decision of the 
Land Office and of the former Secretary of the Interior. 

" Respectfully, 

"January 8, 1884." " Eli Moore. 

Governor J. W. Denver, who accepted the office of Secre- 
tary of the Territory December 21, 1857, and of Governor 
May 12, 1858, resigned his office October 10, 1858, and 
was succeeded by Samuel Medary. It is due to Governor 
Denver to say that he was a man of the highest honor, in- 
tegrity, and patriotism. His position was no sinecure, but 
he discharged the duties of his office with impartiahty and 
great abihty. He had Hved in the West, knew Western 
people, and they knew him. He was not a man to be trifled 
with — even Lane knew this, as, according to Redpath, he 
proposed to have him assassinated by the Danites, should 
he notice his gross insults — and all parties respected him. 
As he was about to leave the Territory, a banquet was given 
him at Leavenworth by men of all parties and factions, 
where the utmost good feeling was manifested. 

As soon as he learned the situation in Kansas relative to 
the Lecompton Constitution, he sent Judge Elmore to Presi- 
dent Buchanan to urge him to recommend its rejection by 
Congress. 

But the President had already committed himself, and 
was unwilling to change his position. Governor Denver 
thus refers to this action in his Bismarck speech, September, 
1884: 

" I sent for him [Judge Elmore] to come down and see me at Law- 
rence. He did so. We talked the matter over, and I presented to him my 
views in reference to the Lecompton Constitution. He agreed with me. 

" ' Then,' says I, ' Judge, I want you to go to Washington city and 
see the President on this subject.' 



GOVERNOR DENVER. 425 

" He says, ' When?' 

" I said, ' To-morrow morning.' 

" ' Why,' says he, ' I have got nothing — I have no clothing with 
me.' Says I, ' You don't need anything; all you will want will be a 
shirt, and that you can buy anywhere as you go along; start in the 
morning.' That night I wrote a long letter to the President, in which 
I summed up the condition of aflfairs here in the Territory, as I then 
understood them, and I urged him not to present the Lecompton Con- 
stitution to Congress at all, but to ask Congress to pass an enabling act 
to let the people of the Territory hold a convention and adopt a consti- 
tution, and to wipe out all of those unauthorized constitutions that were 
presented. 

" Judge Elmore went on to Washington city and presented my letter 
to the President, and had a long conversation with him, and also with 
his own brother-in-law, Senator Fitzpatrick, and other Southern gentle- 
men whom he knew there ; and they all agreed to my advice. 

" Mr. Buchanan said he was very strongly impressed with it, and that 
he was very sorry he had not had the information earlier, because he 
had prepared his message in relation to the Lecompton Constitution, 
and he had shown it to several senators, and could not withdraw it. 
It went in. You know the result." 

All constitutional rubbish having been virtually cleared 
away, the Topeka and Leavenworth Constitutions being with- 
out legal recognition, and Lecompton having been defeated 
under the form of the English Bill, a move was made in the 
winter of 1859 for a fourth Constitution. 

In his address at the Quarter Centennial, at Topeka, Jan- 
uary 29, 1886, Hon. B. F, Simpson thus alludes to the move- 
ment : 

" Time aided the persistence and patience of the Free-State settlers ; 
immigration was coming in from the North ; the Legislature and local 
offices were now controlled by the bona fide residents, and the friends 
of Kansas were about to control the lower House of Congress, and were 
gaining in the Senate. Encouraged by these good indications, the 
Legislature of 1859, on the nth day of February, passed an act author- 
izing a vote of the people to be taken on the question of the formation 
of a Constitution and State Government. The vote was taken on the 
2Sth day of March, and resulted four to one in its favor. An election 
for delegates was then ordered on the 4th day of June. At that election 
there were more than fourteen thousand votes cast. The convention 
met on the 5th day of July. * * * 



426 * THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" On the 4th day of October the work of the convention was ratified 
by the people. There were about sixteen thousand votes polled at the 
election, and more than two-thirds of them were for the Constitution. 
On the 6th day of December an election for State officers, a member of 
Congress, and members of the Legislature was held. On the 14th day 
of February, i860, it was presented to the Senate of the United States. 
* * * On the 2 1st day of January, 1861, the bill for the admission of 
Kansas passed the Senate by a vote of thirty-six for and sixteen against. 
On the 29th President Buchanan signed the bill, Kansas became a State, 
the struggle was over, the battle won ; and the good people of Kansas 
are to-day enjoying the fruits of the victory." 

Judge Simpson, in his address, gives this account of the 
reception of the news of the admission to the Union during 
the session of the Territorial Legislature at Lawrence : 

" I remember the earlier part of the night of the 29th day of January, 
1 86 1, very distinctly. I was at the Eldridge House, in Lawrence, a 
member of the last Territorial Legislature, that was then holding its 
session in that dearly beloved Free-State city. There were from three 
to four inches of snow on the ground (an unusual sight in Kansas in 
those days), and the night was windy and cold. It must have been as 
late as nine o'clock when D. R. Anthony, the same Anthony who is 
now president of our Historical Society, came into the hotel with sturdy 
stride and flashing eyes, and told us that the President of the United 
States had that day signed and approved the bill admitting Kansas into 
the Union. He brought with him and scattered around extras issued 
by a newspaper published at Leavenworth, called the Consemative, an- 
nouncing the joyful tidings in flaring headlines. * * * There was a 
' sound of revelry ' that night in Lawrence, for the news ran through 
the town like wildfire. Houses were lighted, doors were thrown open 
(and some were broken open), the people gathered in public places. 
' Old Sacramento ' was taken from his resting-place, and emphasized 
with hoarse throat the good tidings ; toasts were drunk ; songs were 
sung ; speeches were made, and — well, the truth is, that my recollection 
is not good after midnight. You must recollect that the main question 
then was admission, not prohibition." 

The New York Tribune of January 29, 1861, thus refers 
to this event : 

" The House yesterday passed the Senate bill for the admission of 
Kansas, which thus becomes the thirty-fourth State of the Union, and 
the nineteenth free State. This act not only opportunely adds to the 



END OF THE CONFLICT. 427 

Confederation a sound and loyal memlDcr, untainted by the pestiferous 
blight of slavery, but does rightful though tardy justice to a State which 
has suffered for five years greater wrongs and outrages from Federal 
authority than all the slave States together have endured since the be- 
ginning of the Government, even if their own clamor about imaginary 
oppression be admitted as well founded. 

" The present generation is too near to these events to see them in 
their true proportions, but in the future, in impartial history, the at- 
tempt to force slavery upon Kansas, and the violations of law, of order, 
and of personal and political rights, that were perpetrated in that at- 
tempt, will rank among the most outrageous and flagrant acts of tyranny 
in the annals of mankind." 

The admission of Kansas into the Union was the end of 
the conflict against slavery in Kansas ; and the " beginning 
of the end" of the conflict against slavery in the nation. 
The importance of the Kansas struggle cannot be overesti- 
mated. It settled the destiny of slavery, not only in Kansas 
and the nation, but, eventually, in the world. When Robin- 
son gave J. B. Abbott a letter to Eli Thayer for more Sharp's 
rifles, subscribing it, " In haste, yours for freedom for a 
world," he truthfully represented the extent of the battle- 
field. Such being the importance of the struggle, the men 
who were victorious are entitled to great credit. Who were 
they ? The writer believes they belong to the rank and file 
of the Free-State party ; that it was the policy adopted by 
that party that saved Kansas to freedom. Others claim that 
two or three men whose policy was diametrically opposed to 
that adopted by the party saved the cause. F. B. Sanborn 
calls John Brown the " Liberator " of Kansas, and T. W. 
Higginson, in the Boston Advertiser of September 15, 1879, 
says, " The leaderships of Brown, Lane, and Montgomery 
were what finally saved Kansas to freedom." To say the 
least, if their leadership saved Kansas, it is remarkable that 
their policy was never adopted, but uniformly opposed and 
defeated. But it is not the purpose to settle such questions 
by argument or discussion of the merits or demerits of indi- 
viduals or parties. It is sufficient to furnish what are be- 



425 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



lieved to be facts, and all can draw their own conclusions. 
It is evident a most important and difficult work was ac- 
complished, and if a movement with results as beneficial, 
and with as little bloodshed and violence — barring the mas- 
sacres, robberies, and outrages by individuals — has been 
recorded in ancient or modern history, it has escaped obser- 
vation. 

As a few individuals have seen fit to publish their views 
of the conflict in Kansas, and singled out their heroes, and 
made all movements revolve about them, a fev/ opinions of 
some of the actors in the tragedy are here given by way of 
contrast. 

S. N. Wood,* one of the Branson rescuers, and a man 
who has no superior in a mental or physical encounter, thus 
writes, in 1884, of John Brown: 

" I now give it as my deliberate judgment that John Brown never 
did any good in Kansas, that we would have been better off if he had 
never come to the State. His object was war, not peace. It was his 
constant aim to produce a coUision between the Free-State men and the 
Government, which would have wiped us out in Kansas as effectually 
as he and his little band were wiped out in Virginia. The truth is. 
Brown never had the confidence of the Free-State men of Kansas, and 
no sensible man dared follow his lead. * * * 

" By this wanton murder on the Potawatomie the Free-State men of 
Kansas suffered terribly. 

" There cannot be any question to a man who knew Brown as I did 
that he was crazy, or, rather, had that religious delusion that he was an- 
other Gideon, or rather a chosen instrument in the hands of God to ac- 
complish a great work. ' He died as the fool dieth,' and for one I was 
willing to let his ' soul go marching on.' But to have him thrust down 
this generation as ever being of any benefit to Kansas is an insult to 
the men who made Kansas free. 

" Yours truly, 

" S. N. Wood." 

Another Branson rescuer, the secretary of the Leaven- 
worth Constitutional Convention, and correspondent of the 

* S. N. Wood has been brutally assassinated, in the presence of his wife, 
since the above was written. 



ADMISSION TO THE UNION. 429 

Eastern press, S. C. Smith, has this to say in a letter dated 
April 18, 18S0: 

" I believe Kansas was saved to freedom through the influence of 
those who so conducted themselves within it as to merit the approval 
and support of the friends of freedom throughout the North. * * * It 
seems to me that all the Free-State party could do, in the early struggle, 
from 1854 to 1857, was, if possible, to ' hold the fort,' and wait for the 
triumph of the Republican party to secure their own complete victory. 
This in fact was what they did do. 

" Brown, Lane, and Montgomery would have plunged us into all 
sorts of excesses, put our friends in the East on the defensive, rallied 
the Democratic party under the banner of the ' Constitution and the 
Union,' as against civil war and incendiary abolitionists, and Kansas 
would have been lost by the folly and insanity of its leaders in doing 
those acts which the sentiment of the North could in no wise sustain." 

Solomon Miller, of the Kansas Chief, thus refers to Mr, 
Rastall : 

"John E. Rastall, of the Burlingame Chronicle, protests against the 
publication of letters by the State Historical Society, in which General 
Lane is criticised unfavorably. He thinks Lane's services to Kansas 
should at least secure silence. That may be just as one looks at it. 
History is history, and let the truth be told, hit where it may. Lane 
did Kansas some service, but his services were greatly overestimated. 
He also did a great deal of bad. He was the originator of the corrup- 
tion in politics that Kansas is credited with. His forte was bulldozing 
and deceit. Many good men and tried friends of Kansas were kept 
under through his influence, and many scoundrels placed on top. He 
killed himself, because he undertook to sell Kansas out, but found he 
couldn't deliver the goods. Let the truth be published, whether it be 
for or against him." 

The State was admitted into the Union on the 2gth of 
January, 1861, and the first Legislature convened the last of 
March. At that date seven States had already seceded from 
the Union, and eight others were threatening to follow should 
coercion be resorted to by the Federal Government. Al- 
though without secession Kansas might not have entered the 
sisterhood of States, at least at the date named, she was loyal 
to the Federal Government, as she had been in her territorial 
days, and her first message gave no uncertain sound. Her 



430 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

people were ready to join issue at once on the slavery ques- 
tion, which was the real and only issue. Had Kansas con- 
trolled the Federal Executive, the announcement would have 
been made immediately after the attack upon Fort Sumter, 
that, unless rebeUious States should return to their allegiance 
by a day named in the proclamation, slavery would be abol- 
ished. Such a proclamation might have been prematiu-e 
and a mistake, but, if left to Kansas, it would have been 
made. A few sentences from the first State message are 
given, as follows : 

" When Kansas applied for admission into the Union, it was sup- 
posed there was a Federal Government that would endure until the 
present generation, at least, should pass away. Recent developments, 
however, have given rise to serious doubts as to its existence. Theo- 
retically, such a government is extended over thirty-four States, but 
practically it does not exist in some. In seven States the laws are 
openly repudiated, the forts are seized, the revenue stolen, the Federal 
officers defied, and the flag of the nation insulted with impunity ; and 
eight others threaten to do likewise if the Government attempts to as- 
sert its authority by force in any rebellious State. Such is the condition 
of affairs as bequeathed by the late Administration to the present. 

"The future none can predict. Should matters progress as for a 
few months past, and coercion be decried as at present, not a prominent 
seaboard State will remain in the Union, and not a law of the United 
States will be enforced anywhere. Our Government, once regarded as 
a power on earth, will become a hissing and a byword among the na- 
tions — a stench in the nostrils of all men. This nation occupies a very 
remarkable position before the civilized world. It has heretofore been 
prompt and efficient in putting down treason and rebellion, and the 
whole force of the army and navy has been called into requisition at 
once whenever danger threatened. The whiskey insurrection. South 
Carolina nullification, and the John Brown raid were all summarily dis- 
posed of with no cry of ' coercion.' Now, when certain persons in the 
South have seized upon the revenues, forts, ships, post-offices, mints, 
arms, and army and navy stores, waged war upon the United States 
troops, set up an independent government, and bid defiance to all law, 
the position of the authorities has been simply that of non-resistance. 
Two independent and hostile governments cannot long exist at the 
same time over the same territory without conflict, and either the Con- 
federated States of the South or the Federal Government must succumb, 
or civil war is inevitable. 



SENATORIAL ELECTION. 43 I 

" A demand is made by certain States that new concessions and 
guarantees be given to slavery, or the Union must be destroyed. The 
present Constitution, however faithfully adhered to, is declared to be 
incompatible with the existence of slavery; its change is demanded, or 
the government under it must be overthrown. If it is true that the 
continued existence of slavery requires the destruction of the Union, it 
is time to ask if the existence of the Union does not require the de- 
struction of slavery. If such an issue be forced upon the nation, it must 
be met, and met promptly. The people of Kansas, while they are will- 
ing to fulfil their constitutional obligations towards their brethren in the 
sister States to the letter, even to the yielding of the ' pound of flesh,' 
cannot look upon the destruction of the fairest and most prosperous 
government on earth with indifference. If the issue is presented to 
them, the overthrow of the Union or the destruction of slavery, they 
will not long hesitate as to their choice. But it is to be hoped that this 
issue will be withdrawn, and the nation advance in its career of prosper- 
ity and power, the just pride of every citizen and the envy of the world. 

" The position of the Federal Executive is a trying one. The Gov- 
ernment, when assumed by him, was rent in twain ; the cry against 
coercion was heard in every quarter ; his hands were tied, and he had 
neither men nor money, nor the authority to use either. While it is the 
duty of each loyal State to see that equal and exact justice is done to 
the citizens of every other State, it is equally its duty to sustain the 
Chief Executive of the nation in defending the Government from foes, 
whether from within or without — and Kansas, though last and least of 
the States in the Union, will ever be ready to answer the call of her 
country. 

" C. Robinson." 

At the first session of the Legislature two United States 
senators were elected. The principal candidates were S. C. 
Pomeroy, J. H. Lane, M. J. Parrott, and F. P. Stanton. 
Neither had a majority of friends in the Legislature, and 
some sharp practice was resorted to. Lane was equal to the 
occasion. Although his supporters were largely in the mi- 
nority, they were, as a rule, so positive and firm in their at- 
tachment that they would trade with any other candidate to 
secure votes for their favorite. But no other candidate had 
trading friends enough to elect Lane, and hence he must get 
the trading votes of at least two. Both Pomeroy and Par- 
rott were ready to give Lane votes for an equivalent, while 



432 THE KANSAS CONFLICT, 

Stanton's friends could not be traded to Lane for any con- 
sideration. The same was true of some of the supporters of 
Pomeroy and Parrott. Both Pomeroy and Parrott knew 
that Lane was promising the same men to each in exxhange 
for votes for himself, and did not dare trust his election 
alone and first, and Lane would not trust them. Accord- 
ingly both senators were to be elected at one roll-call. As 
the roll was called, some of the men promised by Lane to 
Parrott voted for Pomeroy, and vice versd. Then began 
changes of votes which continued for hours, until all persons 
who kept the tallies were completely confused. Finally 
voting ceased, and the clerks agreed to announce Pomeroy 
and Lane as elected, although many believed they were not. 
At this election every appliance was used ever brought into 
requisition in the older States, such as bribery with money 
and bribery with promise of office, flattery, threats, and every 
weapon that promised to procure a vote. 

Before the close of the session of the Legislature, Sumter 
was fired upon by the Rebels, and war was inevitable. A 
mihtia law was passed, also authority was given to the Gov- 
ernor, Secretary of State, and Auditor, or a majority of 
them, to issue $150,000 of seven percent, bonds, to be sold 
at a minimum of seventy per cent. ; and the treasurer was 
authorized to sell ten per cent, war bonds for $20,000, to be 
sold by him price unlimited. 

The sum of $12,000 was realized from the latter in the 
market, but the other bonds had no market value. The 
Governor wrote and telegraphed to Eastern brokers, but 
could get no ofifers. The claim was that Kansas might be 
compelled to go with Missouri into the Confederacy, and 
nobody wanted her bonds. Even Minnesota, Wisconsin, 
and Iowa could realize but little for their bonds, some of 
them selling as low as forty per cent. While the Gov- 
ernor abandoned all efforts to sell Kansas bonds in the 
market, the Secretary and Auditor went to Washington, and 
with the assistance of Pomeroy, Lane, and Conway, sold 



SALE OF STATE BONDS. 433 

some of them to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian 
money, realizing to the State sixty per cent. Colonel R. S. 
Stevens was employed by the Secretary and Auditor, who 
made the negotiations. The Department paid eighty-five 
per cent., but the State officers could get but sixty per cent. 
Where the difference between the price paid and received 
went, except $500 to Lane's private secretary, never ap- 
peared, but at the trial for impeachment it was shown that 
neither of the State officers who were parties to the transac- 
tion received any of it. It was well understood at the time 
that the negotiations could be made on no other terms, and 
it was also understood that the agent for the Secretary and 
Auditor received no more than the usual rate for his ser- 
vices. Perhaps persons familiar with such matters at the 
Departments in war times can understand it. That the Sec- 
retary and Auditor tried hard to get all the money paid for 
the bonds, except a reasonable fee to their agent, and that 
they for a time refused to take less than seventy per cent., 
was evident. The question for them to decide was whether 
to take sixty per cent, for the State or nothing, and as the 
State had no money, they took what they could get, believ- 
ing they were thus doing the State a great favor. Although 
at the instigation of Lane they were afterwards impeached, 
no taint of corruption or dishonor attached to either. They 
were proceeded against simply because Lane wanted the 
Governor out of his way, and supposed he could either con- 
nect him with the sale of bonds, or at least put him under 
a cloud until the State Senate should try the impeachment. 
But he failed to do more than connect his name with the 
others in the House finding, while he procured the convic- 
tion of two of his political friends, and caused them to die 
of broken hearts. 
28 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

TROOPS CALLED. LANe's BRIGADE AND JAY-HAWKING. — 

lane's influence at WASHINGTON. 

No sooner were laws passed "by the new State Legislature 
than there was occasion for their use. The first call of the 
President for troops to put down the rebellion was issued 
April 15, 1861, for seventy-five thousand men, and although 
none were allotted to Kansas, she furnished six hundred and 
fifty. The Governor, from his knowledge of the enemy and his 
experience, believed that the war would be a long and bitter 
one, and at once organized the State militia, hoping to have 
every able-bodied man enlisted. J. C. Stone of Leaven- 
worth was appointed Major-General of the Northern Divi- 
sion, and James Blood of the Southern. In a short time 
over two hundred companies were duly organized. But 
soon came calls for volunteers for three years or during the 
war, and every one of these calls was responded to by twice 
as many men as called for. During the term of the first 
Governor calls were made upon Kansas for 5006 men, and 
10,639 were furnished. The people of no State in the 
Union understood this war better than those of Kansas, and 
no people could have been more ready to enlist. But while 
the State was thus patriotic and loyal, the tocsin of war was 
the signal for the resurrection of all the thieves, plunderers, 
and murderers of the territorial days. Montgomery and Jen- 
nison, it is true, called upon the Governor after admission to 
the Union, and pledged loyalty to the State Government ; 
and the first was appointed colonel, and the second given a 



JAY-HAWKERS. 435 

letter to General Fremont. It was believed that if they were 
in the United States service their warlike propensities would 
be gratified in a legitimate manner. No complaints were 
made of Montgomery on the score of irregular warfare, but 
Jennison acquired a bad name before the war was ended. 
Montgomery later went South and took command of a 
negro regiment. T. W. Higginson, who also had command 
of a like regiment in the same locality, is reported as saying 
in a speech at Topeka that Montgomery had the " egotism 
of a fanatic, a superficial fanaticism in which self came up- 
permost. * * * While he was pronounced utterly inca- 
pable of any large command, hating all drill and all fixed 
routine, he would shoot his own soldiers without trial, and 
claim that he had the direct command of God." 

Montgomery and Brown were alike in capacity. Neither 
could command successfully more than a score of men, and 
each was adapted for such exploits as killing, plundering, 
and bushwhacking on the borders of Kansas and Missouri. 
But the thieves and plunderers did not lack leaders, even 
though Montgomery, Jennison, and Brown were otherwise 
occupied. They organized in bands and conducted their 
operations with as much order as the regular army. At first 
they claimed to be Free-State and hailed from Kansas, and 
pretended to plunder and kill only pro-slavery men ; but 
this left some good horses and other desirable property be- 
yond their reach, as it belonged to men of their own party. 
However, they were equal to the occasion, and soon, like 
bodies of thieves, were in the field, claiming to be pro-slavery, 
and these hailed from Missouri, and plundered Free-State 
men. Thus the people of the border counties were menaced 
by these outlaws, whatever their political views. The 
authorities in both States were desirous of protecting their 
citizens from spoliation, and for a time partially succeeded, 
the Governor of Kansas returning the spoils taken from 
Missouri, and authorities in Missouri reciprocating the favor 
to citizens of Kansas. 



436 THE KANSAS CONFLICT, 

But now James H. Lane reappears upon the stage. Al- 
though before his election to the Senate he was always in a 
minority, after that election he became omnipotent. Kan- 
sas had just passed through a severe drought, and all the 
people were poor and needy and desirous of securing the 
means of subsistence for themselves and families. As noth- 
ing promised to relieve them so satisfactorily as Government 
pap, and as Lane was chief dispenser of Federal patron- 
age, he at once became a political autocrat. He evidently 
formed a compact with the President and Secretary of War, 
and was not only to be senator with Federal patronage, but 
to be assisted to get control of the State of Kansas so far as 
mihtary afifairs were concerned. Accordingly, although the 
Governor had doubled the quota of all calls upon Kansas, 
Lane was given authority to raise and officer two regiments, 
the 4th and 5th, and to have command of a brigade. Un- 
der such auspices there was an end to discipline and order, 
and the whole border was despoiled. 

A faint pictiire of the situation may be had by reference 
to official correspondence of the officers of the United States 
army. 

The condition of Lane's brigade on the arrival of General 
Hunter to take command at Fort Leavenworth is thus de- 
scribed by Hunter's Adjutant-General, Charles G. Halpine, 
March 14, 1862, on page 615, eighth volume of the "War 
of the Rebellion," as follows : 



" Nothing could exceed the demoralized condition in which General 
Hunter found the Third and Fourth Kansas Infantry and Fifth and 
Sixth Kansas Cavalry, formerly known as " Lane's Brigade," on his 
arrival in this department. The regimental and company commanders 
knew nothing of their duties, and apparently had never made returns 
or reports of any kind. The regiments appeared in worse condition 
than they could possibly have been in during the first week of their en- 
listment, their camps being little better than vast pig-pens, officers and 
men sleeping and messing together; furloughs in immense numbers be- 
ing granted, or, where not granted, taken ; drill having been abandoned 
almost wholly; and the men constituting a mere ragged, half-armed, 



LANE'S BRIGADE. 



437 



diseased, and mutinous rabble, taking votes as to whether any trouble- 
some or distasteful order should be obeyed or defied. 

" Vast amounts of public property had been taken from the depot at 
Fort Scott and Fort Lincoln without requisition or any form of respon- 
sibility, and horses in great quantities and at extravagant prices had 
been purchased under irregular orders and paid for by the United 
States ; these horses being then turned over to men and officers who 
were then drawing forty cents extra per day for them as private property. 

" Without troops from other States or of a better kind to hold the 
mutinous in subjection, General Hunter had a difficult and most labo- 
rious task in the administration of the department. The few officers 
willing to do right, if they knew how, had to be instructed in nearly 
every branch of their duties, and this was the more difficult, as for the 
first two months the department was almost entirely destitute of blanks, 
and has never had a proper supply. 

" To remedy these things, mustering officers were sent to remuster 
the regiments of Lane's Brigade and consolidate the companies to the 
minimum standing, mustering out the surplus officers and all who could 
prove they had been enlisted as Home Guards under General Lyon's 
call. These mustering officers found that the companies ranged from 
twenty-five to sixty men each, but the average about fifty, each having 
a captain and two lieutenants, and in some instances more ; and had the 
department, as previously, been without troops from other States, there 
is every probability that a general mutiny of the regiments named 
would have taken place, instead of the partial mutinies which have been 
suppressed." 

The conduct and influence of Lane and his brigade is 
thus referred to by General Halleck in a letter to General 
McClellan, dated December 19, 1861 : 

" The conduct of the forces under Lane and Jennison has done more 
for the enemy in this State than could have been accomplished by 
twenty thousand of his own army. I receive almost daily complaints 
of outrages committed by these men in the name of the United States, 
and the evidence is so conclusive as to leave no doubt of their correct- 
ness. It is rumored that Lane has been made a brigadier-general. I 
cannot conceive of a more injudicious appointment. It will take twenty 
thousand men to counteract its effect in this State, and, moreover, it is 
offering a premium for rascality and robbing generally." 

General McClellan writes to the Secretary of War, Feb- 
ruary II, 1862, as follows: 



438 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" Headquarters of the Army, 

"Washington, February 11, 1862. 
" Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War : 

"Sir: I would respectfully submit to you the following extracts 
taken from the report of Major A. Baird, Assistant Inspector-General, 
United States Army, on the inspection of the Kansas troops, viz. : 

" If the practice of seizing and confiscating the private property of 
rebels, which is now extensively carried on by the troops known as 
Lane's Brigade, is to be continued, how may it be managed so as to 
prevent the troops being demoralized and the Government defrauded? 

" The practice has become so fixed and general that I am convinced 
that orders arresting it would not be obeyed, and that the only way of 
putting a stop to it would be to remove the Kansas troops to some other 
field of action. 

" The fact that the property of citizens has been seized and confis- 
cated by the troops engaged in the service of the United States is sub- 
stantiated by both official and reliable private evidence, and from the 
frequent repetition of these acts the commanding officers in Kansas ap- 
pear to have assumed its legality. The authority under which it is 
done is unknown to me, further than such destruction of private 
property as is unavoidable from a state of war conducted according to 
the established usages of civilized nations. I would therefore request 
the policy of the Government for my guidance in dealing with questions 
of this nature. 

" To what extent can the right of confiscation legally be carried, and 
by what tribunal, civil or military, are the questions that will naturally 
arise to be decided that the innocent will not suffer while punishing the 
guilty, and that the dignity and justice of the Government may not be 
at the mercy of individuals governed by cupidity or revenge? This 
question has assumed such proportions that it will require vigorous 
means and well-defined authority to suppress or direct its application. 

" I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
" Geo. B. McClellan, 

" Major-General Commanding." 

General Halleck writes to Secretary Stanton, March 25, 
1862: 

" Sir : Your letter of the 19th instant in relation to military outrages 
in Jackson County, Missouri, is just received. I have had two regi- 
ments stationed or moving in Jackson County for some time past, in 
order to put a stop to these depredations. This is as much as I can do, 
for many other counties in this State are equally urgent in their calls 
for protection, and to gratify them all would require an army of fifty 



HALLECK TO STANTON. 439 

thousand men to be distributed through Missouri in addition to the 
mihtia. 

" That many and in some cases horrible outrages have been com- 
mitted in this State, I do not doubt. They have been committed by three 
classes of persons : 

" 1st. The enemy's guerrilla bands. Since the expulsion of Price 
they are rapidly diminishing. Nevertheless it will require some severe 
examples to be made in order to suppress them. 

" 2d. The Kansas jay-hawkers, or robbers, who were organized 
under the auspices of Senator Lane. They wear the uniform of, and it 
is believed receive pay from, the United States. Their principal occu- 
pation for the last six months seems to have been the stealing of ne- 
groes, the robbing of houses, and the burning of barns, grain, and for- 
age. The evidence of their crimes is unquestionable. They have not 
heretofore been under my orders. I will now keep them out of Mis- 
souri or have them shot." 

Confederate General Benjamin McCuUough writes to the 
Confederate Secretary of War, J. P. Benjamin, November 
19, 1 86 1, as follows : 

" Sir: I shall return to Arkansas, put my troops in winter quarters 
soon, and ask permission to come immediately to Richmond, so as to 
give to the Administration correct information regarding affairs in this 
region before it acts on matters here. The Federals left eight days 
since with their thousand (?) men, quarreling among themselves, and 
greatly injured their cause by taking negroes belonging to Union men. 
General Lane went to Kansas, General Hunter to Sedalia, and General 
Sigel to Rolla." 

General Halleck to General McClellan, December lo, 
1 86 1, writes : 

"I am satisfied that the authorities at Washington do not understand 
the present condition of affairs in Missouri. The conduct of our troops 
during Fremont's campaign, and especially the course pursued by those 
under Lane and Jennison, has turned against us many thousands who 
were formerly Union men. A few more such raids, in connection with 
the ultra speeches made by leading men in Congress, will make this 
State as unanimous against us as is Eastern Virginia. 

" It may be supposed by some that the number of organized Mis- 
souri regiments in this department indicates a different feeling. It 
should, however, be remembered that nearly all of these so-called Mis- 
souri regiments are composed of foreigners or men from other States. 



440 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

From a dispassionate examination of this matter in all its bearings, and 
after conversing with leading men from all parts of this country, I am 
satisfied that the mass of the people here are against us, and that a 
single false step or defeat will ruin our cause. 

"Can't we get some arms soon? I cannot move without them. 
Winter is already upon us, and I fear much longer delay will render it 
exceedingly difficult to operate, and yet a winter campaign seems abso- 
lutely necessary to restore our lost ascendancy and the quiet of the State. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" H. W. Halleck, Major-General." 

Notwithstanding this and more official evidence of the 
demorahzation and crime that occurred under Lane's verbal 
commission to roam at will with a brigade at his heels, he 
was not satisfied, and wanted the President to give him a 
written commission for a campaign into New Mexico with 
an army under his control. The correspondence of the 
President, Secretary of War, and others concerning this 
movement reveals conduct scarcely worthy of a petty prov- 
ince of Mexico, or of the Sandwich Islands. After this ex- 
pedition was well under way — on paper — General Hunter 
wrote the following letter : 

" Headquarters Department of Kansas, 

"Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Februarys, 1862. 
^^ major-General H. W. Halleck, Comtnanding Department 0/ Missouri, 
St. Louis, Mo. : 

" General: Believing that the public interests maybe promoted by 
an interchange of views between us, and a knowledge with each (in 
some general sort) of what the other intends, I venture on intruding 
some outlines of the condition of affairs in this department on your at- 
tention. 

" It seems, from all the evidence before me, that Senator J- H. Lane 
has been trading at Washington on a capital made up partly of his own 
senatorial position and partly of such scraps of influence as I may have 
possessed in the confidence or esteem of the President, said scraps hav- 
ing been ' jay-hawked ' by the Kansas senator without due consent of 
the proper owner. 

" In other words, I find that ' Lane's great Southern expedition ' was 
entertained and sanctioned by the President under misrepresentations 
made by somebody to the effect that said ' expedition ' was the joint 
design and wish of Senator Lane and myself. Mr. Lincoln doubtless 



HUNTER TO HALLECK. 44 1 

thought he was obliging me, and aimed to oblige me in the matter, but 
so little was I personally consulted, that to this hour I am in ignorance 
of what were the terms or striking points of Senator Lane's programme. 
Never, to this hour, has Senator Lane consulted me on the subject, 
directly or indirectly, while the authorities at Washington have preserved 
a similar indiscreet reticence, thinking, no doubt (as General Thomas 
intimates in a recent letter), that as the plan was of my own concoction 
in joint committee of two with Senator Lane, there could be no use, but 
rather an impertinence, in any third parties trying to explain the general 
drift and details to one of the original patentees. 

" Thus I am left in ignorance, but it is more than probable that you 
have been more favored. 

" Your co-operation certainly would be necessary to make effective 
any such expedition as that talked of, and as you have never been sus- 
pected of enjoying Senator Lane's confidence and sharing his counsels, 
I think it more than probable that the veil of mystery must have been 
lifted in your particular case. If so, let me know, for otherwise I must 
lower myself in the estimation of the authorities at Washington by con- 
fessing that I have never at any time, directly or indirectly, consulted 
with or been consulted by the Kansas senator in reference to this or 
any other military operation whatever, and that as to any brotherly con- 
fidence between us, there is just about as much now as there ever was. 

" You can hardly conceive to what an extent the authorities at Wash- 
ington have carried their faith in the representations of Mr. Lane and 
their belief in a sort of Damon and Pythias affection between that gen- 
tleman and myself. Regiments have been sent here with orders to 
' report for duty with the forces under General J. H. Lane ; ' blanks 
telegraphed for by me have been shipped to ' Brigadier-General Lane, 
Fort Leavenworth,' and have never reached these headquarters. In 
fact, I may say that, so far as Washington was concerned, the Kansas 
senator would seem to have effectually ' jay-hawked ' out of the minds of 
the War Department any knowledge or remembrance of the general 
commanding this department. 

" And now we have reached an aspect of the case which would be 
intensely ridiculous, if it were not so fraught with humiliation to offi- 
cials and detriment to the public service. I am daily receiving letters 
from majors, colonels, and lieutenant-colonels, announcing that they 
have been appointed additional aides-de-camp on the staff of General 
McClellan, with orders to report to me in person, that I may again 
order them to report on the staff of ' Brigadier-General J. H. Lane.' 

" The trouble is, that I know of no such brigadier-general. Senator 
Lane having told me expressly and in terms, at the only interview we 
have had since his return to Kansas, that he had not accepted his com- 
mission, and was only my visitor ' as senator and member of the Mili- 



442 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

tary Committee of the Senate of the United States.' I may add that in 
the opinion of those who know him best it is not his intention to accept 
the brigadiership, his hue and cry for that position having only been 
raised at a time when he thought it probable that Stanton (or whoso- 
ever was Governor Robinson's nominee) might oust him from the Sen- 
ate. They say that he will never resign his seat in the Senate unless 
he can have supreme control of this department, with liberty to appoint 
his personal adherents and the legion of army contractors who follow in 
his wake in charge of the quartermaster's and subsistence departments 
of the public service in Kansas. This statement I believe. 

"As to the vote obtained by him in the Kansas Legislature, asking 
that he be appointed major-general, etc., I have heard from men thor- 
oughly informed that it was also ' jay-hawked ' from the reluctant lips 
of an overwhelming opposition majority by Lane's positive promise to 
resign his senatorship forthwith in case it was passed. This made all 
Lane's legislative enemies his most active friends, on the principle of 
' anything to get rid of him,' and all the aspirants for his seat at once im- 
pressed their friends into voting anything that would create a vacancy. 

" Now what is to be done with this erractic senator, or how are the 
authorities at Washington to be convinced that it is neither wise nor 
quite decorous to act in matters vitally affecting a department without 
the knowledge or sanction of the department commander? On these 
points I have to ask light from you, my ' confidential ' relations being 
apparently confined to Senaitor Lane, while you, and very deservedly, 
I confess, are believed to receive beams from the light of ' the inner 
sanctuary.' 

" Disappointed himself, Lane is now bent on making trouble and 
obstructing the expedition which he finds he cannot control. He is be- 
stirring himself in a thousand little irritating processes, trying to make 
a quarrel or ' disagreement ' with me his pretext for backing out of an 
employment which he never intended to accept. As a specimen of the 
work he is at, and the friends he is working with, I send you this copy 
of a telegram sent to him a few days since, a copy having been sent to 
me by a friend at Washington : 

' ' ' General Lane, Fort Leavenworth : 

" ' I have been with the man you name. Hunter will not get the 
money or men he requires. His command cannot go forward. Hold 
on. Don't resign your seat. ,. , j^^^ CovODE.' 

" And now, having given you a pretty thorough insight of the shape 
of matters here, and reserving a statement of my own plans and the 
military condition of the department for another letter, I am. General, 
very truly and obediently yours, ,, -p, „„„_„„ „ 



HALLECK TO HUNTER. 443 

This was answered as follows : 

" St. Louis, February 13, 1862. 
" Major-General D. Hunter, Commanding Department of Kansas, Fort 
Leavenworth, Kansas ; 

"General: Your very kind letter of the 8th is this moment re- 
ceived. I must write you a very hasty answer to-day. You are entirely 
mistaken about my having received any information, official or unofficial, 
from Washington about the ' great jay-hawking expedition.' Not a 
word or hint has been communicated to me. Orders were sent by Gen- 
eral Thomas direct to various regiments in this department to immedi- 
ately repair to Fort Leavenworth and report to General Hunter as a 
part of General Lane's expedition. No notice of such orders was given 
to me. To put a stop to these irregularities I issued General Orders, 
No. 8, and protested both to General Thomas and General McClellan 
against such an irregular and unmilitary proceeding. No reply. I 
stopped some of the troops on their way, and reported that they could 
not move till some order was sent to me. No reply. 

" I am satisfied that there have been many of such orders issued di- 
rectly by the President and Secretary Cameron without consulting Gen- 
eral McClellan, and for that reason no reply could be given without ex- 
posing the plans of the great jay-hawker and the imposition of himself 
and Cameron on the President. Perhaps this is the key to the silence 
of the authorities at Washington. I know nothing on the subject ex- 
cept what I see in the newspapers. 

" In regard to my own plans, they are very simple. I have sent 
some sixteen thousand or seventeen thousand men, under General Cur- 
tis, against Price at Springfield. He has been reinforced by Mcintosh, 
and it is said that Van Dorn and Frost are also marching to his relief. 
If it would be possible for you to move a cavalry force rapidly by Fort 
Scott to threaten Price's right flank, it would have a most excellent 
effect. This possibly was the original intention of Lane's expedition, 
but I protested to Washington against any of his jay-hawkers coming 
into this department, saying positively that I would arrest and disarm 
every one I could catch. 

" The remainder of all my available force will be sent to the lines of 
the Cumberland and Tennessee. Who will take the immediate com- 
mand there is not yet determined. 

" Yours in haste, 

"H. W. Halleck." 

When the Governor of Kansas had learned from what 
appeared to be reliable authority that the President had ap- 
pointed Senator Lane brigadier-general he gave Frederick 



444 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

P. Stanton a commission as United States senator for Lane's 
seat. About this time Lane skulked back to his seat in the 
Senate, and the President and Secretary of War said no 
general's appointment had ever been made. 

Although Hunter had been given a hint that if he desired 
a leave of absence for about twenty days he could probably 
have it, while Lane should take his army to New Mexico, 
he concluded to continue in the field and go in person to 
attend to the foraging and other matters. He accordingly 
issued an order as follows : 

" Headquarters Department of Kansas, 

" Fort Leavexworth, Kansas, January 27, 1862. 

" I. In the expedition about to go South from this department, called 
in the newspapers General Lane's expedition, it is the intention of the 
major-general commanding the department to command in person, un- 
less otherwise expressly ordered by the Government. 

" 2. Transportation not having been supplied, we must go without it. 
All tents, trunks, chests, chairs, tables, campstools, etc., must be at 
once stored or abandoned. The general commanding takes in his valise 
one shirt, one pair of drawers, one pair of socks, and one handkerchief, 
and no officer or soldier will carry more. The surplus room in the 
knapsack must be reserved for ammunition and provisions. Every offi- 
cer and soldier will carry his own clothing and bedding. 

" 3. The general commanding has applied to the Government for six 
brigadier-generals, that his command may be properly organized. Un- 
til their arrival, it is necessary that he should appoint acting brigadier- 
generals from the senior colonels. To enable him to do this, in accord- 
ance with the order on the subject, each colonel will immediately report 
the day on which he was mustered into the service of the United States. 

" D. Hunter, 
" Major-General Commanding." 

This order, with the commission to Stanton as senator, 
"broke the camel's back," and Senator-General-Govemor 
Lane wrote to his friend, John Covode, January 27, 1862, 
as follows: 

"See the President, Secretary of War, and General McClellan — 
answer what I shall do. << t xr t >> 

J. ri. ijANE. 

It is unnecessary to say that here ended the great Lane 



MARTIAL LAW. 445 

expedition, and the following order, declaring martial law, 
ended the jay-hawkers while Hunter remained in command. 

"General Orders, No. 17, 

" Headquarters Department of Kansas, 

"Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Februarys, 1862. 

" I. The civil autliorities of Kansas being manifestly unable to pre- 
serve the peace and give clue security to life and property, and having 
in various instances notified the general commanding of their inability 
to uphold the laws unassisted by the military arm, and the crime of 
armed depredations or jay-hawking having reached a height dangerous 
to the peace and property of the whole State and seriously compromis- 
ing the Union cause in the border counties of Missouri : Now, there- 
fore, martial law is declared throughout the State of Kansas, and will 
be enforced with vigor. 

" II. It is not intended by this declaration to interfere with or super- 
sede the action of the civil authorities in cases of the ordinary nature 
with which said civil authorities may be competent to deal, but it is the 
resolve of the general commanding that the crime of jay-hawking shall 
be put down with a strong hand and by summary process, and for this 
purpose the trial of all prisoners charged with armed depredations 
against property or assaults upon life will be conducted before the mili- 
tary commissions provided for in General Orders, No. 12, of this de- 
partment, current series, and the interference of the civil authorities in 
such cases is prohibited. 

" III. A suitable provost-marshal, with the necessary officers and 
force, will immediately be appointed to carry out the terms of this order. 

" By order of Major-General Hunter. 

" Chas. G. Halpine, 
" Major and Assistant Adjutant-General." 

General Hunter was succeeded by General Denver, in * 
spite of the strong objections of Lane. Denver had been 
Governor in Kansas, and Lane could not use or frighten 
him. It would seem that Secretary Stanton at this time for 
some reason could not be used by Lane as aforetime. E. 
A. Hitchcock, aid-de-camp to the Secretary, writes to Gen- 
eral Halleck from Washington, March 22, 1862, in part as 
follows : 

" Gcnc7-al H. IF. Halleck, etc., St. Lojcis : 

" Mv Dear General: I have just left the Secretary (late in the 
evening). When about to bid him good-evening he conversationally 



446 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

told me that Jim Lane had been to him to-day with an order from the 
President for you not to put Denver in command in Kansas, but that 
Davies (a recent appointment from New York) was to be assigned to 
that command. 

" He told me that his answer to Lane was a positive refusal to at- 
tend to any such order, and if its enforcement should be attempted he 
would leave the office. " 

Probably this man Davies was the same man that report 
said President Johnson afterwards promised to appoint Col- 
lector of New York if Lane would defeat the Civil-tenure- 
of-ofBce Bill, He was said to be a relative of Lane. 

When January, 1863, arrived, the first State Governor 
gladly dehvered up the e.xecutive chair to his successor. Gov- 
ernor Thomas Carney. Enough had been seen and experi- 
enced of the management of the war in the West, permitting 
the most brutal and inhuman outrages, all to gratify personal 
greed, malice, or ambition, to disgust any person not entirely 
given over to subsisting upon human misery. Governor 
Carney, being a friend of Lane, issued commissions at first 
to Lane's appointees in the army whom Robinson refused to 
commission, but he soon tired of the business of being sim- 
ply an automaton, and proposed to be Governor in fact as 
well as in name. This, of course, made trouble, and the 
President was visited and finally concluded to recognize 
Kansas as a loyal State entitled to some consideration by 
the Federal Government. 

Under Governor Carney's administration the retaliatory 
raids, which Robinson had feared and guarded against as 
best he could, occurred, including the massacre of one hun- 
dred and eighty-three of the people of Lawrence by Quan- 
trell, August 21, 1863. The border was now under control 
of volunteer generals and other officers, with Lane as master 
of ceremonies, although without a commission. It was no 
secret that an expedition in the border counties of Missouri 
was preparing to enter Kansas in retaliation for the outrages 
of Lane and his thieves, yet it was permitted by a Union 
force of one hundred men to march forty miles to Lawrence, 



QUANTRELL'S RAID, 447 

kill nearly two hundred people and burn the town, spending 
three or four hours at the work of destruction before Federal 
officers could straighten out their red tape and join in pur- 
suit. However, after leaving what was left of Lawrence, 
about three hundred citizens and Federal troops were rallied 
under Lane and Colonel Plumb, who did escort duty to the 
one hundred and seventy-five men under Quantrell. They 
escorted them over the line into Missouri with due consider- 
ation, not a gun being fired or a man injured. It should 
not be inferred, however, that Lane was afraid of blood or 
opposed to killing people, as afterwards, when Quantrell 
was not near, he marched through some of the counties of 
Missouri and made a clean sweep of all men found, whether 
Union or dis-Union. Quantrell was more considerate than 
Lane had been, as he told one of his prisoners, taken at the 
Eldridge House, that he should spare the women from out- 
rage, which Lane in his raids in Missouri did not do. He 
also said, as Robinson, while Governor, did what he could 
to preserve peace on the border, he should not molest him 
or his property. Of this intention Robinson had no knowl- 
edge, but both his person and property were spared, al- 
though the raiders were within a short distance of him, and 
in full view, and could have destroyed him and his property 
without trouble. Had the raid not been for retaliation for 
similar raids in Missouri, there is no reason why Robinson's 
property should not have shared the fate of Lane's, nor why 
he should not have been killed as were others when com- 
pletely in the power of the raiders. 

So great was the shock to the country of this Quantrell 
retribution that it was necessary something should be done to 
obscure the delinquencies of the officials, and " General Or- 
der No. 11" was issued, depopulating some of the border 
counties of Missouri. Loyal and disloyal citizens alike had 
to vacate and leave their homes to the tender mercies of the 
thieves and despoilers, who left nothing but chimney-stacks 
as monuments of the desolation in their wake. This order 



448 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

was a most humiliating confession of the utter failure of the 
war of rapine permitted, if not encouraged, by the ofificials at 
Washington under Lane and his red-leg thieves, whether 
within or without the ranks of the army. Had the President 
favored the policy of protecting non-combatants, as the offi- 
cials of the State of Missouri and Kansas desired, " Order 
No. 1 1 " would have never been needed, and Quantrell's 
raid at Lawrence would never have occurred. 

It must be borne in mind that the Kansas troops referred 
to by the general officers and by the writer comprise only a 
small portion under the control or influence of Lane and his 
partisans. The large majority of Kansas troops were under 
control of honorable officers, who despised such conduct and 
would have no share in it. The bulk of Kansas troops made 
an honorable record, and no State could excel Kansas in the 
proportion furnished to the army, or show a greater per- 
centage lost in battle. Kansas may be justly proud of her 
war record, with these exceptions, and will not fail to confer 
the highest honors upon her brave warriors. 

One other raid, called the " Price raid," menaced Kansas, 
but General Pleasanton was close in Price's rear, while Gen- 
eral Deitzler, in command of about ten thousand of the 
State militia, Curtis, Blair, Moonhght, and others met him 
on the State fine. He beat a hasty retreat towards Arkan- 
sas, and the war clouds on the border were dissipated. It 
has been unfashionable and unpopular to breathe the least 
criticism of the conduct of the late war, and of its officers, 
from the President down, but the time has passed when it 
will be deemed honorable warfare to kill and outrage women 
and children, flocks, herds, and " all that breathe," of the 
enemy. Non-combatants, whether friends or foes, are en- 
titled to be recognized as human beings ; and that officer, 
whatever his rank, who will use his soldiers to persecute and 
despoil innocent people is a cowardly brute, and should be 
held up to the scorn and contempt of civilized people. It 
is remarkable that the two men who were conspicuous for 



SOL, MILLER ON THE WAR. 449 

permitting or practicing inhuman atrocities are said to have 
committed suicide to be rid of their own society. As time 
goes on, the facts of the late war will come to the surface, 
men will dare to publish them, and then will be a "revalua- 
tion " of Stanton and Lane as there has been of John Brown. 
While the latter lived, he and all his friends denied some of 
his most important acts, and manufactured a condition of 
affairs that had no foundation in fact that they might have a 
consistent hero ; but some men have dared to look beneath 
the surface and have discovered that the beautiful struct- 
ure of which is made a hero rests upon " falsework " only 
and as soon as this shall be removed down comes the hero. 
So in regard to Stanton and Lane, some are aheady daring 
to speak out gently and tell some truths, and it is to be 
hoped it will not be long "before the whole truth can be told. 
Hon. Sol. Miller, a most determined Repubhcan, and the 
most popular as well as the best-infomied editor in Kansas, 
referring to the writer's address before the Loyal Legion, has 
this to say of Lincoln and Stanton : 

" All the statements made by the Governor were facts. The treat- 
ment of the loyal Governor of Kansas by President Lincoln and Secre- 
tary Stanton, at the instance of Lane, was most shameful. The Gov- 
ernor of no other loyal State was so treated. It was and still is unac- 
countable how a man like Lincoln could do such a thing. It has left a 
stain upon his Administration that even his martyrdom cannot efTace. 
It may have been through the malign influence of Stanton, who is 
known in history as the ' Great War Secretary,' but who did many 
things that would not do honor to his memory if daylight were let in 
upon them. There is no doubt that his arbitrary and even tyrannical 
rule caused many disasters to the Union armies, and sent many a gen- 
eral into disgrace, who, if let alone, might have won honorable fame. 
The stipulation demanded by General Grant before he would consent to 
take command of the Army of the Potomac, that his command must 
be absolute, without any interference whatever from the Secretary of 
War, shows that Stanton was known and dreaded by the officers ; and 
Grant's success where all others had failed leaves a dark suspicion of 
the calamities that Stanton's influence brought about. We do not 
doubt that his influence was responsible for much of the trouble in 
Kansas." 
29 



45° THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

Mr. Miller refers to the situation in Kansas during the 
war in his paper of February, 1891, in answer to a letter of 
inquiry, as follows : 

" Have you ever heard of a man by the name of Jim Lane? Well, 
he wanted to be all of Kansas, He was elected to the United States 
Senate at the beginning of the war. Even his enemies gracefully ac- 
quiesced, and were willing to sustain him in his position. But he was 
not satisfied with that. He not only determined to have all his op- 
ponents under his feet, but to have full control of the State Government. 
Where his partisans were not in positions, he undertook to put them 
there, by means apparently regular, or by foul means, as the case de- 
manded. Not only did he determine to be her senator, but Governor 
of the State also, and a department commander in the army, and to dic- 
tate all the army appointments of the State, rightfully belonging to the 
Governor ; and he actually did usurp this power, by permission of the 
President and the Secretary of War — an outrage committed upon no 
other loyal State in the Union. This was not all : a system of terrorism 
was practiced upon loyal citizens who were not in the army, by means 
of deputy marshals, so-called detectives, and desperate, irresponsible 
men under other guises, to keep them in subjection to the wishes of 
Lane. And yet this was not all : gangs of reckless armed men infested 
every community in the State near the eastern border, who were known 
by the name of ' jay -hawkers,' every one a hot partisan of Lane, and 
who would resent an affront to him quicker than a disloyal act to the 
Government. These men, of course, were intensely loyal ; but if the 
Rebel side had been on top, they (or the most of them) would have 
been just as intensely the other way. They were active, able-bodied, 
fine-looking men, as a rule, just such as would have been of valuable 
service in the army ; but they were not in the army, but devoting them- 
selves to pillage and robbing. They first despoiled men of known dis- 
loyal sentiments on the Missouri side of the river. When that field was 
worked out, they paid their respects to men on this side who were 
known to he sympathizers with the South. When that harvest was ex- 
hausted, they began to make disloyal men — that is, they would trump 
up charges of disloyalty against citizens, and proceed to steal their 
horses. Men who would not worship Lane, or men against whom local 
jay-hawkers had a grudge, were spotted as disloyal, and their horses 
were stolen. Many of the best citizens were opposed to this business 
from the start ; but when it got down to this indiscriminate robbery of 
peaceable, loyal citizens by a gang of desperadoes who should have been 
in the army, they organized against them, and soon their graves began 
to dot the prairies of Kansas. Several of them were killed in Troy ; 
one of the leaders at Geary City ; and Cleveland, the chief of all, down 



SOL. MILLER JAMES CHRISTIAN. 45 I 

on the border below Kansas City. The survivors were finally driven 
into the army. 

" The foregoing state of affairs existed in the year 1862. In the Re- 
publican State Convention of that year commissions were almost openly 
auctioned off to influence delegates. Lane had got the right to appoint 
the officers of three regiments then being organized, and he used them 
to run the State Convention. We saw one man in the Convention, the 
most blatant Lane man, who less than two years before had had his 
head broken in attempting to drive Republicans from the polls, and 
who, at the beginning of the war, called a meeting in this county for 
the purpose of taking action looking to uniting Kansas with the South- 
ern Confederacy. He had a quartermaster's commission in his pocket. 
Another noisy delegate had a similar commission. One of the Doniphan 
County delegates, upon reaching Atchison, was feeling unwell. A 
physician in the party told him he was taking typhoid fever, and ought 
to get home as soon as possible. Thus frightened, he gave his proxy 
to the doctor, who did Lane's work in the Convention, and came out 
with a lieutenant-colonel's commission. One prominent anti-Lane man, 
who suddenly flopped before the Convention assembled, got a revenue 
appointment. It seemed as if fully one-half of the delegates in the 
Convention went away with commissions in their pockets. A most ex- 
cellent ticket was nominated, but it was by such scandalous means. It 
was intended that they should be tools of Lane ; but they disappointed 
his expectations, and made good officers. But this was not the object 
in their nomination, and was not foreseen at the time. The means em- 
ployed to nominate them was what hurt, and it caused a big kick." 

Captain James Christian, Lane's law partner, a man uni- 
versally esteemed, has this to say ; 

"Arkansas City, Kansas, January 21, 1889. 
" Governor Charles Robinson, Lawrence, Kansas : 

" Dear Sir : I have read with much interest your paper read before 
the Loyal Legion at Leavenworth, January 3, 1889, and from my stand- 
point — and few men in Kansas had a better opportunity of knowing 
the true inwardness and the facts as they occurred during that period of 
Kansas history, as I was intimately acquainted with all the leading 
characters that figured in that period of Kansas and Missouri history, 
including yourself — I must confess that you under rather than overstate 
the character of that terrible period. Hell in its fury could not match 
the malignity and depravity of the acts that were committed on the bor- 
der of Kansas and Missouri during 1861, 1862 and 1863. I have a 
personal knowledge of some of the facts you mention, and know them to 
be strictly true, and from the source of knowledge I had at that time I 



452 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



have no doubt of some of the facts that you state of a personal character 
being also true. I was stationed on the border at Paola some seven 
months as quartermaster, ordnance officer, and commissioner of sub- 
sistence, U. S. A., as brigade officer of the Twelfth Kansas, Colonel 
Charles W. Adams, and the First Colored, Colonel J. M. WiUiams, 
from the fall of 1862 to June, 1863. When I was first appointed I was 
ordered to report to General James H. Lane. This brouglit me in con- 
flict with Major Easton at Fort Leavenworth, who would not recognize 
General Lane as an officer of the United States army, and refused to 
supply me with quartermaster stores. But when seeing my appoint- 
ment from the War Department, he relented and filled my requisition. 
From that on I had no trouble. * * * 

" In his brigadier-generalship he was notoriously aided by Stanton, 
Secretary of War, and poor President Lincoln was but a man, subject 
to like passions as the rest of us, subject to flattery and coercion. I 
was in Washington when Fred. P. Stanton appeared as senator in Lane's 
place, and there was terrible squirming and consulting at headquarters 
to smother the papers and expunge from the records certain papers and 
documents — but it was all fixed up by the whole-souled Christian states- 
man Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. But the fact was. Governor, 
men of your way of thinking at that time were in a hopeless minority. 
Patriotism was not near so great an object as plunder and popularity. 
It was too much a political war — at least in Kansas. * * * 
" Yours truly, 

" James Christian." 

The following, believed to be written by one of the best 
and most useful men Kansas ever had, who was promoted 
to a general in the army, is quoted, as it gives a correct 
picture of the times : 

" Barnum's Hotel, St. Louis, Missouri, August 30, 1862. 
'' Editor Missouri Republican : 

" I noticed in your paper three or four days ago, yonr INIemphis cor- 
respondent quotes a letter from John Lockhart, Captain, etc., wherein 
John complains that ' General Curtis's army does not forage off the 
enemy, are guarding Rebel property, etc.,' and speaks of the infamous 
conduct of General Curtis and other generals, and says soldiers ought 
to desert unless his views are adopted. John is a Kansas man, and 
evidently don't like the way this war is being carried on. Some others 
of us don't like it either, but for quite different reasons from his. John 
was not with Curtis's army in its march through Arkansas, was not 
with it when it arrived at Helena; hence was too late to get his share 
and evidently feels mad about it, and must vent his spite on somebody. 



GENERAL DEITZLER. 453 

Now, John, hold on a minute. You say, ' On every road leading 
from Helena, for ten miles, soldiers are at every house guarding Rebel 
property.' How indignant the whole country must feel on reading 
that. 

" Now hear me. I was with Curtis on his march through Arkansa.s, 
was with the army when it arrived at Helena; and I now tell John 
Lockhart and the country that on the Arkansas side of the river, out- 
side of Helena, there is not a house for ten 7niles from Helena hit what 
has been pillaged from cellar to garret by our troops. Trunks broken 
open, bureaus opened and sacked — in fact, every drawer, cupboard, 
trunk, chest, sacked and pillaged ; ladies' dresses, earrings, finger rings, 
breast-pins, in fact everything movable possessing value stolen. That 
is not all. On the road travelled by the army the same system of pillage 
has been carried on. If a dollar's worth of movable property has been 
left, it was because the soldier's knapsack would hold no more, or 
wagons could not be pressed to haul it. If guards are now placed at 
the houses, it is a laudable effort to try to repair the outrages of the 
past, or perchance to protect the ' colored ladies ' from exhibitions of 
love manifested by some of the followers of Jim Lane, in imitation of 
the chivalry of the South. 

"John is opposed io guarding Rebel property, and would forage off 
the enemy. So am I, for any love I have for the enemy. I believe in 
so subsisting our army off of the enemy whenever it is possible ; that 
their property should be taken by quartermasters, accounted for, and 
that much saved to the Government. But this is not what some mean 
by their great cry about ' guarding Rebel property ' and living off the 
enemy. They favor a promiscuous and indiscriminate system of steal- 
ing and plunder, where the best fellow gets the most, and which would 
never benefit the Government a dollar. I undertake to say it is the 
duty of a general to take care of his army, and, if necessary, to put out 
guards to keep soldiers from pilfering or plundering. He should do 
so, and stop it at once, and at all hazards. Unless this is done, the 
army is demoralized, and becomes worthless for fighting. I have heard 
it said at Helena that Curtis has regiments that could steal Vicksburg, 
or even Richmond, in a week, without a fight. John is a Kansas man, 
a disciple of Jim Lane, and, I suppose, would carry the war on on 
Lane's principles, or rather, Lane's want of principle. We all recollect 
Lane's marches in Missouri last year, when he was playing brigadier- 
general, and was so patriotic that he charged the Government ' nary a 
cent ' for it. We know that millions of dollars' worth of cattle, horses, 
and mules were driven off, but no one will pretend to say that one dol- 
lar went to Government. The Osceola bank lost $8000; scores of 
ladies lost silk dresses: Lane sent his wife, just afterwards, $1000 in 
gold, a lot of silk dresses, and other wom.en fixings, with a letter cau- 



454 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

tioning her to be careful about using the money and articles, and not 
attract too much notice ; afterwards returned to Leavenworth, paid his 
debts, walked the streets with his hands full of gold, but Government 
did not get a dollar. How is it in Kansas now? You pay six cents 
per pound net for all the beef used in the Department, yet whoever 
heard of a Missouri or a Cherokee farmer getting pay for his cattle? 
A citizen of Kansas, slightly intoxicated, got into my room at midnight 
a few nights since, at Leavenworth, Kansas, and was boasting of clear- 
ing sixteen hundred and fifty dollars on beef that day. * * * 

" Lane's brigade, organized last year by authority of the Presi- 
dent, without commissions from the Governor, became an irresponsible, 
unorganized mob, until the Governor reorganized them and brought 
system out of chaos. Six hundred thousand troops are again called for, 
yet the State of Kansas has not been called upon for a man. The Gov- 
ernor, whose loyalty no one will dispute, has offered time after time, in 
his official capacity, to raise troops, yet his letters are unanswered. 

" But this same Jim Lane is commissioned to go to Kansas and take 
the exclusive charge of recruiting in that State. The people of Kansas 
are heartily sick of this. They have a State Government as loyal as 
any in the Union, and why it should be ignored by the President and 
Secretary of War is more than they can comprehend. But more anon. 

" Truth Teller." 

The Kansas City Star gives this version : 

"THE REVOLT AGAINST LANE IN 1862. 

" What engendered the antagonism in the Republican party of Kan- 
sas? 

" Mr. Willis J. Abbott, author of the ' Blue-jacket' books, is pre- 
paring ' The Story of Kansas ' for Lothrop's ' Stories of the States ' 
series. A Star reporter asked him this morning the cause of the Re- 
publican revolt against Senator Lane in 1862, which brought Mr. In- 
galls and others under the lash of the regular Republican newspapers. 

" ' Briefly stated,' said Mr. Abbott, ' Senator Lane's quarrel with the 
authorities of Kansas was based upon his pretensions to the military 
control of the State. Robinson and Carney, who filled the gubernato- 
rial chair of the State during the Civil War period, bitterly contested 
these pretensions, but Lane's influence with Lincoln and Stanton en- 
abled him to maintain his supremacy until 1864, when Governor Carney 
went to Washington, and by personal interviews with the President and 
the Secretary of War secured for himself the recognition that was given 
the Governor of every other State. At the opening of the war the State 
authorities raised volunteer troops in the usual manner, and after this 
work was done Lane appeared, clothed with vague military powers, and 



W. J. ABBOTT RECORD. 455 

taking command of the State forces began making predatory raids into 
Missouri. His course was deprecated by the Kansas authorities as well 
as by the officers of the regular army, on the ground that he was stirring 
up useless strife. While there was some secession sentiment in Mis- 
souri, there had been no evert acts of war, and it seems probable that 
much of the border warfare was due wholly to Lane's ill-advised zeal. 
When fully in control of the military forces of Kansas, Lane persuaded 
the War Department to authorize a military invasion of the southwest, 
representing that General Hunter joined with him in advising it. 
Hunter afterwards wrote the military authorities, disclaiming any knowl- 
edge of Lane's scheme, and refused to co-operate with him, thus break- 
ing up the project. 

" ' In 1S62 Lane was appointed " commissioner for recruiting in the 
department of Kansas." He organized regiments and distributed mili- 
tary offices, but was checkmated by the refusal of Governor Robinson 
to issue the commissions. The first regiment of colored troops was 
formed by Lane. 

" ' In 1864 Lane's pretensions became so unbearable to the Kansas 
authorities that Carney went to W^ashington to protest. After an inter- 
view with Lincoln he went to Secretary Stanton, bearing a letter from 
the President suggesting that the Governor of Kansas should be treated 
like other governors. Stanton tore the letter up, saying angrily : 

" ' " Tell the President that I am Secretary of War." 

" ' Carney turned away, but before he left the building the Secretary 
sent after him, and a long interview ended in the extinction of Lane's 
extraordinary powers. 

" ' Lane's suicide was in no way due to his political quarrels. He 
had become reconciled to Carney, and his public position seemed secure, 
when certain dishonorable proceedings on his part in connection with 
Indian traders became known. After failing to exculpate himself, and 
trying in vain to secure a foreign appointment from the President, he 
put a pistol in his mouth, and discharged it. Though the wound would 
have killed an ordinary man immediately, he lived ten days, dying July 
10, 1866.'" 

A recent number of the Westport Record has this : 
" Governor Charles Robinson, the ' War Governor' of Kansas, has 
set the Kansas press on fire by speaking out on James H. Lane's 
methods during the war. We are glad there is one man in Kansas who 
dares to speak the truth in vindication of history. The Kansas-Mis- 
souri border war was a disgrace even to barbarism. Westport was a 
central point thereof. We have no excuses to offer, therefore, but re- 
taliation. Could Governor Robinson have controlled his Kansas cut- 
throats and robbers, his policy would have saved bloodshed and fire at 



456 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

least. Missouri law turned over to Kansas authorities the first company 
of thieving excursionists, with their plunder, that visited Kansas. An 
unwritten treaty existed between the State Government of Kansas and 
western Missouri counties early in the war, which both sides endeavored 
to sustain. Lane, Jennison, and their cut-throat followers, unrestricted 
by patriotism, friends, or law, by murder, rapine, and plunder aroused 
the western counties and drew over the line the worst and most lawless 
elements of our citizenship. Quantrell and his bloodthirsty gang went 
to Lawrence after Lane in vengeance for burning Sibley, plundered 
Westport, and pillaged Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Bates counties. Bad 
feeling is now over, and we only hail Governor Robinson's letter with 
joy as being vindicatory of history and as being from the man whose 
policy so thoroughly foiled all our well-laid plans for making Kansas a 
pro-slavery State." 

Professor L. W. Spring, a writer on Kansas who dared to 
tell the truth as he found it, has this to say, beginning on 
page 273 of his " Kansas " : 

" Lane's singular influence over Mr. Lincoln and the Secretary of 
War, Mr. Stanton, is one of the most inexplicable and disastrous facts 
that concerned Kansas in 1861-65. It was the source of the heaviest 
calamities that visited the commonwealth during that period, because it 
put him in a position to gratify mischievous ambitions, to pursue per- 
sonal feuds, to assume duties that belonged to others, to popularize the 
corruptest political methods, and to organize semi-predatory military 
expeditions. His conduct not only embarrassed the State executive and 
threw State affairs into confusion, but provoked sanguinary reprisals 
from Missouri. In 1864 Mr. Lincoln, remarking upon Lane's extraor- 
dinary career in Washington to Governor Carney, offered no better ex- 
planation of it than this : ' He knocks at my door every morning. 
You know he is a very persistent fellow, and hard to put off. I don't 
see you very often, and have to pay attention to him. ' 

"Lane's intrigues in Washington against the State administration 
prospered. Though recruiting was energetically pushed by the local 
authorities, and three regiments were already in the field — the first and 
second obtaining honorable recognition for gallant conduct at the battle 
of Wilson's Creek, Missouri — yet in August, Lane, technically a civil- 
ian, appeared in Kansas clothed with vague but usurping military 
powers. He reached Leavenworth on the 15th, and announced in a 
public address the extinction of all his personal and political enmities — 
a costly sacrifice laid on the altar of his country. Two days after- 
wards he set out for Fort Scott, where the Kansas Brigade, comprising 



PROFESSOR SPRING. 457 

the Third and Fourth Infantry together with the Fifth and Sixth Cav- 
alry regiments, M-as concentrating to repel attacks upon the southeast. 
He began his brief military career in this region by constructing several 
useless fortifications, among M'hich the most considerable affair was 
Fort Lincoln, on the Little Osage River, twelve miles north of Fort 
Scott. September 2d there was a skirmish at Dry Wood Creek, Mis- 
souri, between a reconnoitering party and a force under the Confed- 
erate General Rains, which was not wholly favorable to the Kansans, 
and caused a panic at Fort Scott. Leaving a body of cavalry with 
orders to defend the town as long as possible, and then fire it, Lane 
retired to his earthworks on the Little Osage. ' I am compelled to make 
a stand here,' he reported September 2d, after getting inside Fort 
Lincoln, ' or give up Kansas to disgrace and destruction. If you do 
not hear from me again, you can understand that I am surrounded by a 
superior force.' The Confederates did not follow up their advantage, 
but retreated leisurely towards Independence, Missouri. Encouraged 
by their withdrawal. Lane took the field on the loth 'with a smart little 
army of about fifteen hundred men,' reached Westport, Missouri, four 
days later, where he reported, ' Yesterday I cleaned out Butler and Park- 
ville with my cavalry.' September 22d he sacked and burned Osceola, 
Missouri — an enterprise in which large amounts of property and a score 
of inhabitants were sacrificed. He broke camp on the 27th, and in two 
days reached Kansas City. The brigade converted the Missouri border 
through which the march lay into a wilderness, and reached its destina- 
tion heavily encumbered with plunder. 'Everything disloyal,' said 
Lane, ' * * * must be cleaned out ; ' and never were orders more lit- 
erally or cheerfully obeyed. Even the chaplain succumbed to the ram- 
pant spirit of thievery, and plundered Confederate altars in the interest 
of his unfinished church at home. Among the spoils that fell to Lane 
personally there was a fine carriage, which he brought to Lawrence for 
the use of his household." 

But enough of such wholesale crimes to gratify the crav- 
ings of a bloodthirsty maniac clothed with authority from 
Washington. Various reasons have been given for his final 
taking off, but it was a clear case of simple retribution for 
crimes that no human tribunal was adequate to punish. 
Retribution came in a most simple and natural way, as it 
always does under the immutable law of action and reaction. 
This man not only despoiled the inhabitants of Missouri and 
Kansas, but he joined a partnership concerned with Indian 
and army contracts. Not content with that, he is said to 



458 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

have formed a partnership with President Johnson to defeat 
a Republican measure in the Senate, the Civil-tenure-of-office 
Bill, in consideration of having a relative appointed Collector 
of New York. As he failed, however, to defeat the bill, he 
failed of the reward for his treachery to his party, but he 
secured the ill-will and contempt of his colleagues in the 
Senate. This opened the way for the exposure of his In- 
dian partnership, which, if proven, would expel him from 
his senatorial seat. The man who possessed the proof of the 
partnership had been prepared for his part in the drama by 
Lane when first elected senator. This man's name was G. 
W. Deitzier, Colonel of the First Regiment of Kansas Vol- 
unteers, who by gallant conduct at Wilson's Creek and else- 
where had earned and received the appointment of brigadier- 
general. Before senators had been elected in 1861 in 
Kansas, Deitzier was appointed Indian agent, but his ap- 
pointment had not been acted upon by the Senate when 
Lane took his seat in that body. Lane at once opposed 
Deitzler's confirmation, charging some improper conduct on 
his part, and his name was withdrawn by the President. 
Deitzier became permanently disabled from service in the 
army by sickness, and resigned as brigadier-general. He 
afterwards became a member of the firm of which Lane was 
private partner. By this means he acquired the information 
that would have been fatal to Lane had it been given to the 
Senate. Some of Lane's former friends who became ene- 
mies because of his course on the Civil-tenure Bill, or for 
some other reason, started the ball by damaging correspond- 
ence to leading newspapers. Lane referred to this in his 
place in the Senate, promising to give the reports due atten- 
tion at another time. He started at once for Kansas to 
shut the mouth of Deitzier, but this was impossible. All 
manner of appliances were used without avail. General 
Deitzier refers to the efforts of Lane's friends in a letter to 
Robinson dated San Francisco, California, November 16, 
1879, as follows: 



CAUSE OF LANE'S SUICIDE. 459 

" If it will answer your purpose, I will give you the solid facts re- 
specting the Fuller and McDonald Indian and Army contracts, and 
Lane's interest therein, and his disgraceful conduct when he was ex- 
posed, and finally, of his death when he discovered that I could not be 
moved by blandishment nor threats to give up the testimony which a 
kind Providence had placed in my hands, and which, if submitted to 
the United States Senate, would certainly have resulted in his expulsion 
from that body, which facts you might place in the hands of General J. 
L. McDowell, to be incorporated in the letters which he proposes to 
write on such subjects. * * * if the facts which I have proposed to 
furnish for General McDowell should be called in question by the cham- 
pions of Lane, I would be willing to swear to them and to produce such 
further evidence as would convince all of their truth. * * * 
" Truly your friend, 

"George W. Deitzler." 

On January 31, 1884, Deitzler wrote from Oro Blanco, 
Arizona Territory, in part as follows : 

' ' Now the cause Avhich led to the grim chieftain's flirtation with his 
little pistol would form an interesting chapter in his infamous career, 
and I am perhaps better posted on that subject than any other person ; 
and while the task is very distasteful to me, I am almost persuaded to 
regard it as a duty, and furnish the groundwork for you to dress it up 
when you shall have reached that point in your recollections of those 
times. I will do it, upon the following conditions : First, it must not 
go in as coming from me, and secondly, before it goes in you must get 
General McDowell's endorsement so far as he is cognizant of the facts 
in the case. General McDowell was postmaster at Leavenworth at the 
time, by the grace of Lane, and he came to my house and labored with 
me several days to let the old man down easily, as others had done. 
McDowell was my friend, and at heart despised Lane as much as I did ; 
but he really worked hard to induce me to let up and to surrender certain 
official and partnership documents in my possession, which documents, 
supplemented by testimony, would have hoisted the old sinner disgrace- 
fully from his seat in the United States Senate. General McDowell's 
conduct was gentlemanly and proper in every sense, and he offered me 
no bribe, as Fuller, Dewolf, and others did. All he said was that Lane 
would secure me any appointment I might desire, while his more inti- 
mate friends and strikers offered appointments, money, land, etc., and 
finally threats. But Lane had not been good to me, and besides, I 
knew him to be a very bad man, and so on general principles I felt it 
my duty to do what I could to deprive him of his power. When he 



460 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

found that ' blandishments would not fascinate me nor threats of the 
halter intimidate me,' his courage failed him. You know the rest." 

Before General Deitzler had time to write out his facts he 
was accidentally killed, and they may never be given to the 
public. 

Senator Lane, failing to get what he wanted from General 
Deitzler, started for Washington, but on reaching St. Louis, 
and hearing of new scandals at Washington, he concluded 
to return to Kansas, and soon after put a pistol in his mouth 
and sent a ball through his brain. Thus ended the career 
of a man without principles or convictions of any kind, who 
was comparatively weak and harmless when alone, but with 
the support of the Administration at Washington, with un- 
hniited patronage and irresponsible power, was an instrument 
of untold evil. 

At the time of the Wakarusa war, in the fall of 1855, 
Thomas Barber was wantonly murdered by the Governor's 
militia, and at his funeral this language was used : " Was 
Thomas Barber murdered f Then are the men who killed 
him, and the officials by whose authority they acted, his mur- 
derers. And if the laws are to be enforced, then will the 
Indian agent, the Governor, and the President be convicted 
of and punished for murder." Was this position right in 
that case ? If so, here is another case, which was multiplied 
probably by hundreds, if not by thousands. At a meeting at 
Leavenworth, Lane is reported in Lippincotfs Magazine as 
saying: "When I was marching through there [Missouri] 
the other day, I happened to inquire for the best Union 
man in the county. They told me Hook, and I went out 
of my way to visit him. I asked him in the presence of my 
men if he was for the Union. He said, ' Yes, for the Union 
as it was.' I then inquired if he harbored Rebels in his 
house. He answered, ' No, but he had heard them at his 
corn-crib sometimes at night.' I turned and rode away." 

A voice in the crowd : " Where's Hook now ? " " In ! 

I left him in the hands of the executioner." 



RESPONSIBILITY FOR MURDERS. 46 1 

Was this murder? If so, then are those who killed the 
man " and those by whose authority they acted his murder- 
ers," not excepting the men who gave Lane his roving com- 
mission. It is claimed that such conduct was in retaliation 
for the Quantrell raid, but unfortunately the Quantrell raid 
was itself a retaliation for similar raids into Missouri pre- 
viously made by Lane. 

Of this supplementary raid this writer in Lippincott truly 
says: "The victims of his [Quantrell's] massacre have been 
counted, but those whom Lane and Jennison left in the 
hands of their executioners, who will chronicle them ? They 
are unnumbered as the murders of Attila." 

Several lessons may be learned from the conflict in Kan- 
sas, and the conduct of the War of the RebeUion in the West, 
that may be of service to the oppressed, to philanthropists 
and statesmen. 

It will be seen that the remedy for oppression in a Re- 
publican government is not the overthrow of that govern- 
ment, but resistance of oppression within it. If a people 
with votes in their hands, with power to replace every offi- 
cial, from President to constable, cannot exercise that power 
for their relief from oppression, a forcible overthrow of the 
government would leave them at the mercy of designing 
men who would as readily control the new government as 
the one destroyed. A Repubhcan government is what the 
people make it, and if not what it should be, they only are 
to blame. The safety of such a government depends upon 
the education of the voters ; and the remedy for injustice in 
any direction is exposure of the wrong and agitation for the 
right. Defensive opposition to wrong and oppression with 
prudence will succeed, while offensive opposition to the 
government itself will fail. Amos A. Lawrence once said, 
" The Government may have many faults, but let it be as- 
sailed from any quarter and the whole people will rally for 
its defense." In resisting oppression no wrong or outrage 
must be committed by the oppressed. They depend for 



462 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

relief upon the sympathy or sense of justice of the people 
not directly interested ; and so long as oppression only is 
resisted, this sympathy will be with the oppressed, but so 
soon as the oppressed or wronged turn oppressors and wrong 
innocent parties, all sympathy ceases. The Free-State party 
of Kansas retained the sympathy of the North because it did 
nothing that could be called wrong in itself to any man, but 
acted strictly on the defensive. And when Brown's massa- 
cre occurred, Redpath, knowing the effect of wrong-doing 
upon the country at large, painted the men killed in the 
blackest colors imaginable, making their taking off an act of 
self-defense on the part of the Free-State men. Had the 
facts been generally known at that time as they are known 
now, that these men killed were no more guilty of crime than 
were the men killed by Hamilton at the Marais des Cygnes, 
a terrible revulsion would have occurred throughout the land. 
But the Slave-State men knew the facts, and the retahation 
commenced immediately and lasted all summer. As fast as 
Free-State men learned the facts and became undeceived, 
apologies gave way to censure. So in the war of the rebel- 
lion : had Lane and his red-legs, regular or irregular, con- 
fined their operations to hostile armies protecting non-com- 
batants of all parties from molestation, comparative peace 
would have reigned on the borders of the two States, Missouri 
and Kansas, and all parties would have remained at home 
except such as chose to enlist in the regular service ; but the 
system of brigandage adopted by Lane and his partisans 
drove nearly the entire State of Missoiuri into rebellion, and 
all able-bodied men into the rebel army, besides causing 
retaliatory raids upon Kansas like that of Quantrell upon 
Lawrence in 1863. 

Here w^as a most lamentable example of the abuse of 
Federal patronage. The President, that he might insure his 
re-election, or for other cause, placed the army at the dis- 
posal of a man so constituted that a little power over the 
hves of other men would intoxicate him, and permitted him 



LESSONS TAUGHT. 463 

to devastate, plunder, and kill at pleasure, restrained by no 
authority, human or divine. 

But the lesson will not be forgotten by the ambitious. 
One of these men, not receiving the punishment due for his 
crimes in Kansas, sought to inaugurate a servile war, the 
most revolting of all wars, and suffered the penalty prescribed 
by law. Another was overtaken in his crimes, and executed 
himself ; while the third, although glorified for his proclama- 
tion freeing the slaves of the South, has the luster of his 
fame and name terribly tarnished by his conduct of the war 
in the West, if not in the East. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE GROWTH OF KANSAS. HER INSTITUTIONS. TEMPER- 
ANCE. PROHIBITION. IMPORTANCE OF THE KANSAS 

CONFLICT. 

The close of the war found Kansas with a population but 
little in excess of the population when admitted into the 
Union. In 1861 her population was 107,206, while in 1865 
it was 140^179, the increase being chiefly after the close of 
the war in 1864. 

After 1865 the prosperity of Kansas was unparalleled in 
population, wealth, production, internal improvements, edu- 
cational facihties, charitable institutions, and rehgion. 

The national census of 1890 shows a population for Kan- 
sas of 1,423,000; while the school population between the 
ages of five and twenty years, 1888, was 532,010. The to- 
tal population for that year, 18S8, estimated by Governor 
Martin, was 1,651,000. 

The assessed valuation of all property in Kansas in i860 
was $22,518,232 ; while in 1888 it was $353,248,332. The 
number of school-houses in the State in 1888 was 8196, 
valued at $8,608,202 ; while the receipts from taxation and 
other sources for school purposes were $5,333,200. 

Of the higher educational institutions. Governor John A. 
Martin, in his message, January, 1889, thus speaks: 

" The State University now comprises six departments — Science, 
Literature and Arts, Law, Music, Pharmacy, Art and Medicine. The 
Preparatory Department has been recently discontinued, as the Normal 
Department was a few years ago, and advanced tests for admission have 
been established, so that the institution may be devoted to legitimate 
university work, leaving secondary education with the high-schools and 



EDUCATIONAL SUSTITUTIONS. 465 

academies of the State. These changes have largely reduced the num- 
ber of students qualified for admission, but notwithstanding this fact 
the number in attendance shows a steady and gratifying increase. On 
the 1st of January, 1885, the students enrolled numbered four hundred 
and nineteen ; and twenty-four professors, assistants, and instructors 
were employed. On the ist of January last four hundred and eighty- 
three students were enrolled, and the corps of professors, assistants, and 
instructors numbered thirty. * * * 

"The State Agricultural College has at present three hundred and 
fifty-nine students enrolled, an increase of twenty-one since the close of 
the fall term of 1884. Its instructors in all departments number twenty- 
five, an increase of four during the past four years. The improvements 
in buildings and fixtures since January i, 1885, have aggregated in 
value $27,000, and the increase in the value of the farm, furniture, 
stock, and apparatus is over $70,000. 

" The State Normal School has four hundred and forty students en- 
rolled on the 1st of January, 1885, and six hundred and sixty are now 
enrolled. Fourteen instructors are now employed, an increase of three 
in four years. The expenditures during that period include $26,200 for 
buildings, $4800 for museum and apparatus, and $5000 for furniture 
and miscellaneous improvements. 

" The buildings of all these institutions are commodious, handsome, 
substantially built, and admirably adapted for their purposes ; and it can 
be fairly said that the reputation of the University, the College, and 
the Normal School, for thorough and exact work in their several de- 
partments, has more than kept pace with their improved facilities and 
attendance." 

The subject of a college or university was considered 
early in the territorial period. Amos A. Lawrence, after 
whom the town of Lawrence was named, gave to S. C. 
Pomeroy and C. Robinson as trustees two notes, of $5000 
each, with accruing interest, to endow a college or university 
at Lawrence in 1855. This endowment, amounting in 1863 
to over $14,000, secured the location of the State University 
at that town. 

The charitable institutions are on a most liberal scale. 

The insane asylums in 1888 accommodated over sixteen 
hundred patients ; the Institution for the Blind had eighty- 
six pupils ; for Deaf and Dumb, three hundred and twenty- 
one pupils ; State Reform School, two hundred and eight 
30 



466 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

pupils ; Soldiers' Orphans' Home, one hundred and nine 
children ; Asylum for Idiotic and Imbecile Youth, one hun- 
dred children. The chiu-ches of the various denominations 
were early in the field, Rev. S. Y. Lum, Congregationalist, 
and Rev. T. Ferrill, Methodist, arriving in Kansas in 1854, 
and Rev. E. Nute, Unitarian, in 1855. But as population 
increased denominations multiplied, furnishing every town 
and hamlet with as many religious societies as the people 
were able to support. 

Internal improvements, especially transportation, have 
kept pace with the population. As Kansas is essentially an 
agricultural State, adapted to wheat, corn, and stock-raising, 
railroads were a necessity and, although expensive, no local- 
ity would part with them for twice their cost to the people. 
No new State has been so favored in this respect, the track 
laid reaching nearly nine thousand miles. While all power 
is apt to be arbitrary and oppressive, the vast corporations 
controlling the transportation lines in Kansas have been as 
reasonable in their charges and mindful of the interests of 
their patrons, the people, as could be hoped for under the 
circumstances. While some roads more than pay expenses, 
as through lines, their branches and feeders which accommo- 
date sparsely settled communities fall behind. As business 
increases it can be done at lower rates, and with an ever- 
watchful Legislature justice will doubtless be done to all 
parties interested. 

While some of the most reckless, unscrupulous, and aban- 
doned men have found their way to Kansas, as a whole no 
State can show a better class of citizens. Nearly all the 
active Free-State men were strictly temperate in their habits, 
many of them never using intoxicants as a beverage. The 
Territorial Legislature passed stringent local option laws, 
and they were well enforced. The State Legislatures also 
have always kept abreast of the temperance movement in 
the country, and no State could show as few drinking-places 
in proportion to the population as Kansas. In 1880 there 



TEMPERANCE PROHIBITION. 467 

were less than a dozen towns in the State that did not have 
local option prohibition, and even where, license prevailed 
the restrictions in most places were enforced and drunken- 
ness was rarely seen upon the streets. So strong was the 
feeling against the liquor traffic that at that date an amend- 
ment to the constitution was adopted forbidding the sale of 
intoxicants for all purposes except medical, mechanical, and 
scientific. Should the amendment and laws passed under it 
be strictly enforced, no intoxicants could be procured for 
pm'poses of drink by purchase or manufacture within the 
State. The purpose of the amendment is thus set forth by 
the attorney-general in his report for the years 1889-1890. 

" The prohibitory law of Kansas forbids the manufacture and sale 
of intoxicating liquor, except for medical, scientific, and mechanical 
purposes. Thus far in Kansas no attempt has been made to regulate 
by legislation the use of intoxicating liquors. Every person who can 
lawfully acquire and come into possession of any intoxicating liquor has 
been at perfect liberty to use the same in any manner he sees fit, and 
for any purpose, excepting that of sale to others. The only object of 
forbidding the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, except for 
medical, scientific, and mechanical uses, must necessarily have been to 
diminish the use of said liquors except for such purposes. The object 
sought was the prevention of the use of intoxicating liquors as a bever- 
age. The method employed was the indirect one of forbidding the 
manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquor except for these purposes. 
In order to justify the prohibitory law, it must be conceded that the use 
of intoxicating liquors for other than the excepted purposes is dangerous 
to the community, and is wrong to the people of the State. The ad- 
mitted evils of intemperance are occasioned by the use of intoxicating 
liquors as a beverage. 

"If it be true that a State by prohibiting the manufacture and sale 
of intoxicating liquors for other than the excepted purposes intends 
thereby to diminish the use of intoxicating liquors except for those pur- 
poses, why may not the State, as a police regulation in aid of accom- 
plishing what the law seeks to accomplish, regulate the use of intoxi- 
cating liquor as well as its sale? " 

According to this statement, the piu-pose is to deprive the 
citizen of the power of choice, or free agency, in regard to 
personal habits such as drinking, and place him under the 



468 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

guardianship of the Legislature. One class of citizens takes 
this view of the prerogative of the Legislature and laws, 
while another class believes that the citizen should be left a 
free moral agent in personal matters such as eating, drinking, 
and beheving. What will be the final result is unknown. 
Good men differ as widely upon this question as th-^y did 
upon the questions of pohcy to be adopted in making a free 
State of Kansas. The advocates of the different methods, 
local option and constitutional prohibition, are very positive 
they are right, and each school is thoroughly armed and 
equipped with opinions, arguments, and facts to establish the 
views they hold. 

A few samples follow. Governor John A. Martin, one of 
the best and most honored citizens Kansas ever had, in his 
retiring message to the Legislature, January, 1889, said: 

" There is no longer any issue or controversy in Kansas concerning 
the resuUs and benefits of our temperance laws. Except in a few of the 
larger cities, all hostility to them has disappeared. For six years, at 
four exciting general elections, the questions involved in the abolition 
of the saloon were disturbing and prominent issues, but at the election 
held November last this subject was rarely mentioned by partisan speak- 
ers or newspapers. Public opinion, it is plainly apparent, has under- 
gone a marked change, and there are now very few citizens of Kansas 
who would be willing to return to the old order of things. 

"The change of sentiment on this question is well grounded and 
natural. Xo observing and intelligent citizen has failed to note the 
beneficent results already attained. Fully nine-tenths of the drinking 
and drunkenness prevalent in Kansas eight years ago have been abol- 
ished ; and I affirm, with earnestness and emphasis, that this State is 
to-day the most temperate, orderly, sober community of people in the 
civilized world. The abolition of the saloon has not only promoted the 
personal happiness and general prosperity of our citizens, but it has 
enormously diminished crime ; has filled thousands of homes where vice 
and want and wretchedness once prevailed with peace, plenty, and con- 
tentment ; and has materially increased the trade and business of those 
engaged in the sale of useful and wholesome articles of merchandise. 
Notwithstanding the fact that the population of the State is steadily in- 
creasing, the number of criminals confined in our penitentiary is steadily 
decreasing. Many of our jails are empty, and all show a marked falling 
off in the number of prisoners confined. The dockets of our courts are 



MARTIN HUMPHREY KELLOGG. 469 

no longer burdened with long lists of criminal cases. In the capital 
district, containing a population of nearly sixty thousand, not a single 
criminal case was on the docket when the present term began. The 
business of the police courts of our larger cities has dwindled to one- 
fourth of its former proportions, while in cities of the second and third 
class the occupation of police authorities is practically gone. These 
suggestive and convincing facts appeal alike to the reason and the con- 
science of the people. They have reconciled those who doubted the 
success and silenced those who opposed the policy of prohibiting tlie 
liquor traffic. 

" The laws now on our statute books touching this question need 
few if any amendments. Fairly and honestly enforced, they make it 
practically impossible for any person to sell intoxicating liquors as a 
beverage in any Kansas town or city. What is needed, therefore, is 
not more rigorous laws, but a systematic and sincere enforcement of the 
laws we have." 

The incoming Governor, Hon. L. U. Humphrey, on the 
same occasion dehvered his message, and said, on page 28 
of same volume, as follows : 

" The growth of public sentiment in support of constitutional prohibi- 
tion in Kansas is steady, healthy, and unmistakable. In the last cam- 
paign no political party had the temerity to demand a resubmission of 
the question to the people, in the face of a popular verdict that has been 
repeated and emphasized every time the popular sense has been taken. 
As an issue in Kansas politics, resubmission is as dead as slavery. The 
saloon as a factor in politics, as a moral iniquity, has been outlawed and 
made a ' fugitive and a vagabond on the face of the earth,' or that part 
of it within the territorial limits of Kansas." 



follows : 



The attorney-general reports the same year as 

"The administration of the law is growing more popular. The 
masses demand it, and scheming individuals are slow to oppose the will 
of the masses. Where there is a popular uprising against what the 
people have declared to be a common nuisance, dangerous to society, 
morals, and health, and conducive to crime and pauperism, the end is 
certain. The fight for supremacy has been tedious. The lawless ele- 
ments of society are always arrayed against the law. Dens of infamy 
and hotbeds of crime are always found clustered around the saloon. Re- 
move the saloon, and the threshold of the penitentiary is farther away 
from the rising generation. The saloon has been banished from Kansas 
soil, and already the result can be appreciated." 



470 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



Ex-Senator Ingalls claims that the saloon-keeper and 
drunkard have joined the Troubadours and the Mound 
Builders, there being neither found in Kansas. 

So much for one side. A word from the other. A com- 
mittee of the lower house of the Legislature, appointed to 
investigate the workings of the metropolitan police, reported 
to the late session, 1891, in part as follows: 

" Mr. Benning, a member of the board of police commissioners of 
the city of Atchison, testified that tippling-shops, gambling-dens, and 
the keepers of houses of prostitution were regularly fined. His testi- 
mony was confirmed by a number of respectable citizens and the records 
of the board. Evidence explanatory was given by Republicans, pro- 
hibitionists, and Democrats. They all expressed their belief that the 
prohibitory law could not be enforced in Atchison, and that it was in 
the interest of society and the treasury of the city to have the laws exe- 
cuted to regulate and not to suppress the sale of intoxicating liquors. 
A joint-keeper testified that he and others were ordered by the police to 
close their doors during the visit of the Legislative committee. 

" Major B. P. Waggener's letter: 

" ' Atchison, Kansas, February 19, 1890. 
" 'Hon. Lyma7i U. Hicmphrey, Governor of Kansas, Topeka, Kansas : 

" ' My Dear Sir : I am in receipt of your favor of the 7th, in which 
you advised me that you have had a conference with Mr. C. W. Ben- 
ning, who stated that the board of police commissioners of Atchison 
were desirous that I should formulate and present to them any charges 
that I might desire to make touching the official conduct of the marshal 
or chief of police, and to submit the same with whatever testimony I 
desired in support thereof, and that the same should have prompt, fair, 
and vigorous attention on their part. 

" ' I beg to advise you that on the i6th day of December, 1889, 1 ad- 
dressed a communication to the Hon. W. L. Johnson, secretary of the 
board of police commissioners, a copy of which I herewith enclose, and 
up to the present time the receipt thereof has not been acknowledged, 
or any notice whatever taken of it. I am therefore fully satisfied that 
any complaint that I might make to the board of police commissioners 
of this city would be treated in the same manner. 

" ' During the month of December, 1889, I addressed you a letter, 
accompanied with affidavits which clearly established the following facts, 
namely : 

" ' I. That since the appointment of the board of police commission- 



LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE. 47 I 

ers in 1889, there has been in operation in this city an average of about 
forty ' joints,' or places where intoxicating liquors were sold in violation 
of the law. 

" ' 2. That during all of that time the present chief of police had sys- 
tematically collected money from the proprietors of these ' joints ' as a 
license for the privilege of selling liquors in violation of law, and to se- 
cure immunity from arrest. 

" ' 3. That a large amount of money was collected by the chief of 
police without any arrests having been made, and which was paid for 
the express purpose, by parties who were selling liquors in violation of 
the law, to avoid arrest. * * * ' 

"John L. Stewart, of Fort Scott, testifies that the metropolitan police 
force is detrimental to any city where they exist ; that prohibition was 
not now nor never had been enforced since the appointment of said 
board ; that there was a scare over the appointment of your committee, 
but he positively knew of three saloons, running wide open, selling in- 
toxicants over the counter, and that there were probably fifty joints in 
the city, and numerous poker-rooms. 

" W. A. Simpson, president of the metropolitan police board of Kan- 
sas City, Kansas, presented a statement showing the aggregate collec- 
tions from April i, 1889, to April i, 1890, to have been $32,625.47, and 
from April 1, 1890, to January i, 1891, from all sources, $26,925.20. 
When asked to explain the large increase over former years, he testified 
that it was partly owing to the increase in population and more com- 
plete set of ordinances and their more general application. There were 
also exhibited papers, certified to by the clerk of Kansas City as being 
a partial copy of the records of the police judge, which showed that the 
revenue from tippling-shops from April i, 1890, to February i, 1891, 
inclusive, had been from $1750 to $4500 per month, and gambling 
from $277 to $1158 per month, aggregating in ten months $28,977. 
He testified that there were a few places where intoxicating liquors had 
been sold by the same person for the past four years, and that the only 
convictions that had been made were by the sheriff of the county in the 
district court. 

* ' Your committee believe there is collected under the ordinance fifty 
dollars as a cash forfeiture in most cases, and that there is no further 
punishment. 

" The Leavenworth board is at present composed of three aged men ; 
the president, William Fairchild, is over eighty years old. They were 
said to have been selected because of their recognized belief in prohibi- 
tion and prohibitory laws. Prior to this appointment, there have been 
changes made in the board a number of times. The president's testi- 
mony, which was confirmed by the secretary of the board, was to the 
effect that they had tried to enforce the law and ordinance governing 



472 



THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 



the city, but had failed to suppress the ' joints,' and were not now try- 
ing to abolish houses of prostitution; that there was little gambling 
known to them or the force in said city. They testified further that 
there were many places where intoxicants were sold, and that they were 
now permitting forfeitures of cash bonds in the interests of a depleted 
treasury. They stated their belief that corrupt methods had been re- 
sorted to by certain ones of their employees, who collected money from 
jointists, and did not turn the same into the public treasury. * * * 

" City Attorney S. B. Isenhart, being sworn, gave it as his opinion 
that the metropolitan system had not been a success in the city of To- 
peka, and not independent of politics, as supposed they would be. They 
do not feel under obligations to take advice of the city authorities, as 
they owe allegiance only to the Governor. They do not care to econ- 
omize when there is no money to pay, and operate in opposition to the 
city government. They are inefficient in sanitary work and the collec- 
tion of licenses imposed by the ordinances, which result in a loss to the 
city of $5000 per annum, not considering the increased expense of the 
system to the city. I think the system is against the best interests of 
the community. I have not been in any joints myself, but I am just as 
well satisfied that we have an unlimited number of them, and I think 
there is just as much drunkenness here now as there was under the old 
system. I am satisfied that the records of the district court show an 
increase of crime. At one time, about two years ago, there was an 
agitation about a decrease of crime by certain parties who seemed to 
want it to appear that way, and it is a fact that, in some mysterious 
way, one term of court there were no criminal cases on the docket ; and 
I know that the same belief is entertained by other attorneys, for the 
next term of court was largely taken up in trying these criminal cases ; 
and when it used to take, some years ago, two weeks to finish the 
criminal docket, it now takes one month to a month and a half to dis- 
pose of the docket each term of court. 

" E. T. Allen, who was chairman of the police commission of 
Wichita from July 24, 1889, until January 6, 1891, having been duly 
sworn, said that the only time he had ever known the saloons to be 
closed in that city was when he had been given authority of the board, 
and had signed an order and given it to the marshal. He thought that 
condition continued about two weeks, when the board was changed, by 
the removal of the two men who had voted to close them. * * * 

" The saloons are now open, and I believe with a cognizance of the 
officials of the city. In fact, they are running every day, and money 
put up for bonds of fifty dollars each, which are forfeited, and the joint- 
ists submitted to no other punishment. 

" Your committee requested one of their own members (Mr. Kenton) 
to go to Wichita and investigate the condition of the police government, 



COMMITTEE CONTINUED, 



473 



who visited numerous saloons having regular bars in the rear of the 
buildings, or upstairs, as a general rule; that in some of them there 
were a great number of boys from sixteen to twenty years of age. He 
visited one gambling-house that contained various gambling devices and 
a bar from which drinks were served, and which was thronged with men 
engaged in gambling. 

" The mayor exhibited a report that showed that fines had been col- 
lected from some time in the autumn to the present, aggregating over 
$10,000. 

" Your committee have heard no testimony that induces them to be- 
lieve that the prohibitory law has been enforced in any city of the State 
through the agency of the metropolitan police or any other machinery 
of the law. In all of the six cities, fines, or forfeited recognizances 
called fines, are imposed. There is usually no further punishment in- 
flicted. The statute, which imposes a fine of one hundred dollars and 
imprisonment for the offense of selling intoxicating liquors, is abrogated 
by ordinances that impose fifty or a hundred dollars only, without im- 
prisonment, by recognizance being forfeited ; the offense itself is thereby 
compromised in a manner which, if clone by any other official action, 
would be a barbarous crime. The more vigorous the effort made to 
enforce prohibition in the cities, the more irresponsible and debased are 
the men who are engaged in the traffic, the more deceptive their devices 
and secluded their places of business. 

" The authorities of Topeka have made a more determined eflfort to 
enforce prohibitory laws than any city of its class, as has been already 
shown. They are expending $15,000 per annum of the tax-payers' 
money in excess of all the revenue of the police department of the city, 
and yet the joints, drunkenness, and crime have not been banished. In 
the other five cities the system has been merely self-sustaining; but it 
is clearly made so through the encouragement it gives to crimes and mis- 
demeanors ; through fines imposed, which are given the semi-recogni- 
tion of a license, and when the fines are not collected for the public 
treasury the temptation to bribe the police is increased, and the illegiti- 
mate joint remains through that influence. 

" The system is so absolutely divorced from all responsibilities to 
the people that the officers exercise an independence in the interest of 
crime by not informing themselves of the character of the city ordi- 
nances, and when they do, neglect or refuse to enforce them. Your 
committee conclude that it is a mistake to establish dual governments in 
small cities, but as the Senate has refused to repeal the law authorizing 
the appointment of commissioners, we can only condemn the general 
administration of the metropolitan police law of the State, and petition 
the Governor. Your committee therefore recommends that the governor 
be memorialized, in the exercise of the discretion placed in him which is 



474 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

by the statutes, to withdraw the application of the metropolitan police 
law from the cities of Kansas and leave those cities to the enforcement 
of their own police regulations. 

" All of which is respectfully submitted. 

" Levi Dumbauld, 
" S. F. Neeley, 

" B. F. FORTNEY, 

" W. M. Kenton, 
" E. D. York." 

This legislative committee was composed of members of 
all political parties, and the report was unanimous. 

The editor of the Lawrence Record, an ardent prohibition- 
ist, has an editorial, July 7, 1891, as follows: 

"PUT UP OR SHUT UP. 

" Let us understand this matter fully. If the Republican party of 
Kansas is unwilling to uphold prohibition longer, let the statement be 
honestly made to that effect. This farce is played out. When Leaven- 
worth alone sustains one hundred and seventy joints, when Atchison is 
full of liquor-houses, while Wichita has practically never closed its 
saloons, it is time for Prohibition (?) Kansas to take down the sign. 
The State is a by-word and a hissing everywhere. Countless thousands 
paid out yearly to Missouri and other States for liquor. If we are to 
have unrestrained sale in the large cities, why not in the small ones? 
If we must have beer and whiskey, why not make it at home, and save 
the money to the State, thus creating a home market also for the grains 
to be brewed and distilled? 

"This is the devil's own logic. But it will be the rallying cry of 
the thousands of Republicans in the next election, unless some change 
is made in the present situation. We said some time ago that the pur- 
pose was rapidly forming to abandon prohibition by the Republican 
leaders. Every day makes more apparent the truthfulness of our in- 
formation. We repeat the statement of that article, that prohibition was 
never in greater danger than now. There is not a Republican politician 
in the State who would not gladly trade all his stock in prohibition for 
an American-made tin pan. Protection to Eastern manufactories granted 
galore unasked, but protection to the home from the vile saloon is to be 
determined by its effects upon voters. And the purpose is resolved 
upon by these pirates who have scuttled the fair ship already, to abandon 
her to drift as a derelict over the political sea. 

" It is time to know where we are and what we intend to do. It is 
time for prohibition Republicans to decide whether they endorse the 



A PROHIBITIONIST'S TESTIMONY. 475 

damnable policy of this State administration in maintaining under the 
eyes of its special officials cities full of saloons. It has come to be the 
case that municipalities which desire to obtain money from the sale of 
liquors ask for the metropolitan police system, sure of their revenue if 
they obtain it. 

" Away with the lying story that Kansas is a prohibition State! Let 
us tell the truth! The only party which advocated it is about to abandon 
it, and the organs of the party are silent witnesses of the crime. Unless 
public opinion is soon awake, the deed of treason will be done, and the 
best opportunities for a generation to clear Kansas from the curse of 
the saloon will be lost. 

" There is more liquor sold and drunk to-day in Kansas than at 
any time since the passage of the amendment! Deny it, whoever 
dare!" 

It may be proper to state that the Republican party was 
the only party that endorsed prohibition in its platform, and 
although having at the previous election over 80,000 plural- 
ity, at the last election it was put in the minority of 40,000, 
while the prohibition attorney-general Avho was so sanguine 
in his report in 1888 was defeated by a Democrat and Peo- 
ple's-party man by about 40,000 votes. Here is a statement 
giving both sides of prohibition, and the reader can take his 
choice. 

But whatever may be the present or future of Kansas, she 
has done a work for the cause of freedom that is her crown- 
ing glory. She had an opportunity denied every other Ter- 
ritory and State, and well did she improve it. The results 
of the territorial conflict are the inheritance of the State and 
the Union, and the handful of pioneers who turned back the 
dark waves of tyranny from Kansas and sent back slavery 
reeling in despair " to die amid its worshippers," can well 
afford to rest from their labors, trusting to the present genera- 
tion to see that no harm shall come to the heritage pur- 
chased by their labor and sufferings. 

The importance of these labors were briefly given in an 
address at the Quarter Centennial of Kansas, by the writer, 
which is here quoted as a fitting close to the foregoing rem- 
iniscences: 



476 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" Mr. President and Fcllmv-Citizens : 

" We have assembled to celebrate the twenty-fifth birthday of the 
State of Kansas. On such an occasion, a review of her wonderful 
growth and achievements is eminently proper, and in these no State can 
excel our own ; but I have been notified that I am expected to speak of 
Kansas in her antenatal days, and relate something of her struggles in 
embryo. While the territorial period was full of incident and worthy 
achievement, the field has been so often plowed and cross-plowed, har- 
rowed and raked, as with a fine-tooth comb, for items to add to the 
fame or infamy of the contestants, that nothing fresh or interesting re- 
mains to be said appropriate to the occasion. Some of the results, 
however, of the territorial struggle have been inherited by the State, 
and constitute its chief glory. Of these I will briefly speak. To be- 
gin at the beginning, I will say that the difficulty which culminated in 
Kansas had its origin in the Garden of Eden. According to report, the 
first law ever given to the race was a prohibitory law, with death as the 
penalty for disobedience. This law, of course, was violated by the oc- 
cupants of the Garden, and should the threatened penalty be inflicted, 
the Law-Giver would have no subjects, as the violators included the 
whole human family. Accordingly, the penalty was modified to suit the 
emergency — a precedent still followed by political parties when the en- 
forcement of their laws will leave their party without a quorum in the 
Legislature, or in a minority at the polls. The amended penalty reads 
as follows : ' In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread till thou 
return unto the ground.' The penalty attached not only to the law- 
breaker, but to all his posterity, and from that day to this the chief con- 
cern of mankind has been to escape this penalty. Every person seems 
desirous of making some one else do the sweating while he eats his 
bread. Every device h,as been resorted to. Sometimes a man escapes 
the penalty by withholding the earnings of his employees, in whole or 
in part ; but a favorite method has been to capture, steal, or purchase a 
man, and to compel him to do the sweating both for himself and his 
master. This practice has been handed down from generation to gen- 
eration, till the date of the opening of Kansas to settlement, and it was 
proposed to introduce it on Kansas soil. Hence the conflict. Many 
people had come to look upon this business not only as avoiding the 
penalty for eating the prohibited fruit, but as a great wrong to such as 
were compelled to suffer the double infliction. Some thought it was the 
' sum of all villainies,' and others ' trembled when they remembered 
that God was just.' Many years of agitation had preceded the settle- 
ment of Kansas, both among the people and in Congress. Various 
compromises and provisos had been agreed to, but all such were as 
ropes of sand before the demands of the slave power. One of these 
barriers to the extension of slavery went down in the enactment of the 



IMPORTANCE OF CONFLICT. 477 

Kansas-Nebraska bill. The opponents to the extension of slavery were 
beaten — hopelessly beaten — in Congress ; the agitators of the North 
and East were powerless, and could anything be done to stay the 
progress of this institution? A writer in the Charleston (S. C.) 3Ier- 
ciiry states the case as follows : 

' ' ' First, by consent of parties the present contest in Kansas is made 
the turning-point in the destinies of slavery and abolitionism. If the 
South triumphs, abolitionism will be defeated and shorn of its power 
for all time. If she is defeated, abolitionism will grow more insolent 
and aggressive, until the utter ruin of the South is consummated. Sec- 
ond, if the South secures Kansas, she will extend slavery into all ter- 
ritory south of the fortieth parallel of north latitude to the Rio Grande, 
and this, of course, will secure for her pent-up institution of slavery an 
ample outlet and restore her power in Congress. If the North secure 
Kansas, the power of the South in Congress will gradually be dimin- 
ished ; the States of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and 
Texas, together with the adjacent Territories, will gradually become 
abolitionized, and the slave population, confined to the States east of 
the Mississippi, will become valueless. All depends upon the action 
of the present moment.' 

"This is an exact statement of the situation as it then appeared, 
and the prediction only failed of realization in consequence of the sui- 
cide of slavery by the Rebellion, which could not then be known. Here, 
then, was the stake — not the extension of slavery to Kansas merely, 
but its extension indefinitely, or its final extinction. Who could be 
found to enter the lists? Slavery had all the advantages. On its side 
were billions of dollars and the domestic relations of eight million peo- 
ple involved. Congress was in favor of slavery extension, or it would 
not have removed the barriers from the west line of the State of Mis- 
souri. The Judiciary was on the side of slavery extension, or it would 
never have made the Dred Scott decision. The Executive Department 
of the Government favored slavery extension, or it could not have been 
elected, and would not have had Jefferson Davis for Secretary of ^Yar. 
Besides, Kansas had a slave State extending across its entire eastern 
border, whose inhabitants were alive to the situation, bold, reckless, 
and defiant, while the opponents of slavery were to be found chiefly at 
a distance of hundreds of miles from the field of conflict. Congressmen 
from the North had been beaten and cowed ; the old Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety had no faith in success, or in the value of victory if achieved, and 
the Liberty and Free-soil parties had no machinery that could be useful 
in such an encounter. Who, under these disadvantages, would enter 
the contest for this prize with the slave power of the nation that had 
never known defeat? Individuals and individual effort could do some- 
thing, as was shown in the person of him who will speak this evening 



478 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

for the pioneers of Kansas. But the whole North must be aroused and 
organization effected, to stimulate and aid emigration. A theretofore 
comparatively obscure man, a member of a State Legislature, was 
seized with inspiration, and he stepped forth in the winter of 1854, 
when it became evident that the Kansas-Nebraska bill would become a 
law, and organized emigration and preached the crusade till victory was 
secured. So obnoxious did this man become to the slave power that a 
price was set upon his head, dead or alive, even before the lands of Kan- 
sas were open to settlement. But emigration, while indispensable, was 
not all that was requisite. A State had to be organized, and this work 
must be done on the soil of Kansas. This was the work in hand, and 
the election of a Territorial Legislature was the first step to be taken. 
The party that should secure this would secure a great, if not decisive, 
victory. As is well known, this victory perched upon the banners of 
the South. Was there, then, hope left for a free State? All the ma- 
chinery for making a State was now in possession of the enemy. This 
was in 1855, and there would be no new Legislature elected before 1857. 
In the meantime ' returning boards ' could be provided and a constitu- 
tion inaugurated, which might settle the question in issue irrevocably. 
Could any power or any agency wrest victory from such a defeat, and 
under such circumstances? Every statesman, every politician, every 
student of history, and every person of ordinary information of affairs 
of government, would have answered, and did answer, this question in 
the negative, but the Free-State party of Kansas answered it in the 
affirmative, and made good their answer, as history has recorded. How 
this victory was achieved — by what measures or policy — belongs to the 
history of the territorial period, and not the State ; but as its results 
must have been inherited by the State, some of them may properly be 
named here. 

" First. The victory of the Free-State party made Kansas a free in- 
stead of a slave State. 

" Second. According to the Charleston Mercury, it put an end to 
the extension of slavery in every direction, and secured freedom to all 
other Territories. 

" Third. It made the Republican party of the nation. The ' Cyclo- 
pedia of Political Science ' says truly : ' The predominance of a moral 
question in politics, always a portentous phenomenon under a constitu- 
tional government, was made unmistakable by the Kansas struggle, and 
its first perceptible result was the disappearance, in effect, of all the 
old forms of opposition to the Democratic party, and the first national 
convention of the new Republican party, June 17, 1856.' 

" Eli Thayer says that ' the Kansas fight made the Republican party.' 
Also he adds that it was ' a necessary training of the Northern States 
for subduing the Rebellion.' 



RESULTS OF CONFLICT. 479 

" Fourth. This being conceded, Kansas made the election of Abra- 
ham Lincoln possible. 

" Fifth. Securing a free State in Kansas and the election of Lincoln 
brought on the Rebellion, which — 

" Sixth. Was the suicide and the end of slavery, in this nation and 
prospectively in all nations. 

" All these results the State of Kansas inherits from the territorial 
struggle, as can be abundantly shown. I am aware that an attempt has 
been made to rob Kansas of some of these laurels, but the attempt will 
fail. One writer would make it appear that the raid at Harper's Ferry, 
to which he was a party, destroyed slavery, and not the work in Kansas. 
What are the facts ? Were I to quote all the declarations of Southern 
politicians during the pending of the elections of 1856 and i860, saying 
that should the Republican candidate for President be elected they would 
go out of the Union, my time and your patience would be exhausted. 
I will therefore refer to but two or three statements : Jefferson Davis, 
in his message to the Confederate Congress, does not mention Har- 
per's Ferry, but gave this as a reason for withdrawing from the Union : 

" ' A great party was organized for the purpose of obtaining the ad- 
ministration of the Government, with the avowed object of using its 
power for the total exclusion of the slave States from all participation in 
the benefits of the public domain acquired by all the States in common, 
whether by conquest or purchase, surrounding them entirely by States 
in which slavery should be prohibited, thus rendering the property in 
slaves so insecure as to be comparatively worthless, and thereby annihi- 
lating, in effect, property worth thousands of millions of dollars. This 
party, thus organized, succeeded in the month of November last in the 
election of its candidate for the President of the United States.' 

" I will next quote from a letter attributed to Judah P. Benjamin, 
senator from Louisiana, to the British Consul in New York, dated Au- 
gust II, i860, as follows: 

" ' The doctrines maintained by the great leaders of the Republican 
party are so unsuited to the whole South that the election of their can- 
didate (which is almost certain) amounts to a total destruction of all 
plantation interests, which the South, as sure as there is a God in heaven, 
will not submit to. Sooner than yield to the arbitrary dictates of trai- 
torous allies and false friends who have proven recreant to the solemn 
obligations of the old Constitution, we will either secede from the Union 
and form a separate government, or upon certain conditions at once 
return to the allegiance of Great Britain, our mother country.' 

" Here again is no allusion to Harper's Ferry, but he proposes to 
secede because of the success of the Republican party, which was 
' made ' by the Kansas struggle. 

"The ' Political Cyclopedia' says that 'Kansas, it might be said, 



480 THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

cleared the stage for the last act of the drama, the Rebellion ; ' that the 
Kansas struggle was the ' prelude to the War of the Rebellion.' One 
more question remains to be considered : If the success of the Repub- 
lican party, made by the Kansas struggle, was the immediate cause of 
secession, war, and consequent emancipation, did the Harper's Ferry 
raid contribute to that success? This question must be answered most 
decidedly in the negative. This same Cyclopedia says that 'the North 
almost unianmously condemned the whole insurrection,' while it is well 
known that from every stump during the Lincoln campaign it was most 
vehemently denounced. The Republican party, that there might be no 
mistaking its position, adopted this resolution in its national platform : 

" ' Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, 
and especially the right of each State to order and control its own do- 
mestic institutions according to its judgment exclusively, is essential to 
the balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our po- 
litical fabric depends, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed 
force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pre- 
text, as among the gravest crimes.' 

"After the election, President Lincoln, in his inaugural address, 
quoted this resolution, and added : ' I now reiterate these sentiments, 
and, in doing so, I only press upon the public attention the most con- 
clusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the prosperity, 
peace, and security of no section are to be in anywise endangered by 
the new incoming Administration.' 

" Can it be possible that the effect of such a raid as that at Harper's 
Ferry, almost ' unanimously denounced by the whole North,' especially 
denounced in the platform of the party, and the denunciations reiterated 
by its candidate, could be to aid in the election of Mr. Lincoln? To 
ask such a question is to answer it. Not only did the raid not help the 
Republicans, but as soon as the facts were developed it did not frighten 
the South. The pro-slavery members of the Senate Investigating Com- 
mittee, Mason, Davis, Fitch, say that not a single slave could be induced 
to voluntarily join the raiders, and when arms were put in their hands 
they refused to use them, and escaped from their captors as soon as they 
could do so with safety. 

"The Republican members of this committee, Collamer and Doo- 
little, said that ' the lessons which it teaches furnish many considera- 
tions of security against its repetition. The fatal termination of the 
enterprise in the death and execution of so large a part of the number 
engaged ; the dispersion of the small remainder as fugitives in the land ; 
the entire disinclination of the slaves to insurrection, or to receive aid 
for that purpose, which was there exhibited ; the very limited number 
and peculiar character of the conspirators — all combine to furnish as- 
surance against the most distant probability of its repetition.' It is evi- 



BENEFITS TO THE SOUTH. 481 

dent, from all the facts in the case, that this raid not only did not help, 
but hindered the Republican cause, and that it did not have a feather's 
weight in causing the Rebellion or the destruction of slavery in conse- 
quence of it. 

" Let us reverse the picture for a moment. Suppose, instead of a 
free State, a slave State had been secured in Kansas, with the power to 
extend the institution at will, into all the Territories. Suppose, as a 
consequence, the Kansas struggle had not ' made ' a victorious Repub- 
lican party in i860, but had secured the election of Breckenridge, the 
Southern candidate for President. Would the South have then seceded, 
and would slavery have been abolished? And would either event have 
transpired in consequence of the Harper's Ferry raid, or five hundred 
such raids? Cook had been at Harper's Ferry some twelve months, 
and Brown and his followers four or five months, and yet not a slave 
had been enlisted for the crusade by either. How much effect would 
such a raid have to produce secession or the abolition of slavery, with 
Kansas and the Federal Government in the secure possession of the 
South? 

" No, no; the l^ood-tide of slavery extension received its first perma- 
nent check in Kansas, and it was the refluent wave from her borders 
that carried Abraham Lincoln into the White House, drove the South 
into rebellion, and buried slavery so deep that for it there can be no 
resurrection. Not only is the State of Kansas thus indebted to the Ter- 
ritorj', but the late slave States that contended so earnestly to extend 
their peculiar institution are doubly indebted. These States have not 
only been redeemed from a blighting curse, but have been prospered in 
every way as never before in their history. So general and widespread 
is their prosperity, that so far as known not a citizen can be found in 
the entire South who would re-establish slavery if he could. But the 
blessings resulting from the territorial struggle do not stop here, for 
the nation itself has been born again, with that birth which brings with 
it ' peace on earth, and good-will to men.' The old contentions, bitter- 
ness, and irrepressible conflict between the North and South have given 
place to mutual respect, love, and good-will. The United States now 
constitute a Union in reality as well as in name, with like institutions, 
like aspirations, and a common destiny. Our Union, thus cemented, 
has become the envy of all nations, and a terror to all enemies. The 
freest, happiest, and most prosperous people on the globe, we have be- 
come a place of refuge for the oppressed of all nations. Such being the 
result of the territorial conflict, well may the 'contestants embrace each 
other on the twenty-fifth birthday of this wonderful State, and hence- 
forth dwell together in unity, under a Government that knows no 
North, no South, no East, no West, but that is ' one and inseparable, 
now and forever.' " 
31 



APPENDIX. 



CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT JOHN BROWN. 

SANBORN TO LAWRENCE. 

Concord, Massachusetts, January 26, 1885. 
Amos A. Lawrence, Esq., BrookUne : 

My Dear Sir : In your attack on John Brown at the Historical 
Society, May 8, 1884, you contrasted him very unfavorably with Charles 
Robinson, who, you said, " was in every respect worthy of the confi- 
dence reposed in him by the settlers (of Kansas), and by the Emigrant 
Society." If you still think so highly of him, you will doubtless take 
pleasure in submitting to the Historical Society the following letter from 
Robinson to Judge Hanway, of Lane, Kansas, which he wrote about 
six years ago, and before he found it expedient to disown all his former 
opinions concerning Brown. I copy from a copy sent me by a member 
of the Kansas Historical Society, on whose files the original letter of 
Robinson now stands : 

(Copy.) 

" Lawrence, February 5, 1878. 
"Hon. James Hanway : 

" Dear Sir : Your favor of 30th ult. is received. I am also in receipt 
of a letter on the same subject from Mr. Adams. I never had much 
doubt that Captain Brown was the author of the blow at Potawatomie, 
for the reason that he was the only man who comprehended the situa- 
tion and saw the absolute necessity of some such blow, and had the 
nerve to strike it. I will improve my first leisure to put on paper my 
views of the situation at that time, and forward them to Mr. Adams. 

" Very truly, 
(Signed) " C. Robinson." 

The Mr. Adams here mentioned is F. G. Adams, the secretary of the 
State Historical Society, whom you perhaps know, as I do. On the 
20th of August, 1878, Mr. Adams (who had doubtless heard from 
Charles Robinson in the six months since the date of his letter above 
cited) wrote to me as follows : 

" Governor Robinson has expressed the opinion that it will be some 



APPENDIX, 483 

time proven that Captain Brown was present at the affair (of Potawa- 
tomie). He thinks the act was a justifiable and necessary one : that 
the act did in fact have the effect to check the career of wholesale mur- 
der, which the pro-slavery men had entered upon and intended to kill or 
to drive from Kansas every out-spoken Free-State man in the Territory." 

The original letter of Mr. Adams lies before me as I write. What 
he thus quotes as Robinson's opinion of Brown's act is the same to 
which Robinson gave utterance at Osawatomie in the summer of 1877, 
in a public speech, which has been reported to me by two Kansas gen- 
tlemen who heard it. It is also the same that Robinson expressed in 
a public speech at Lawrence in the winter of 1859-60, a printed report 
of which is also on file in the Kansas Historical rooms, Topeka. I 
printed in the Transcript oi December 4, 1884 (which I sent you), Rob- 
inson's letter of September 14, 1856, commending Brown in the highest 
terms. These letters and speeches show that from 1856 to 1878 Charles 
Robinson took the same view of Brown's action on the Potawatomie 
that I now take, and by no means your views. 

May I rely on your candor to state this to the Historical Society? 

Yours truly, 

F. B. S.\NBOR.\. 

ROBINSON TO LAWRENCE. 

Lawrence, February 6, 1885. 
Hon. A. A. Lawrence: 

Dear Sir: Your favor enclosing a letter from F. B. Sanborn is 
received. 

If Mr. Sanborn had read my letters published in the Boston Trans- 
cript oi June 12 and August 15, 1884, he would have been saved the 
trouble of writing his letter of the 26th ult. In the Transcript of June 
12 I say: 

" Until the testimony of Mr. Townsley appeared, many Free-State 
men apologized for the massacre on the ground that the men killed were 
worthy of death for their crimes. With these apologies I sympathized, 
supposing what Redpath and others said was true. This was the testi- 
mony on which the case chiefly rested till Townsley's Mas given. Had 
Redpath's statements proved true as to the character and conduct of the 
men killed, I should have continued to apologize for the men who com- 
mitted the deed, although it never could be justified. But I have now 
become satisfied that Redpath's account is all fiction, except the state- 
ment that the men were killed. I believe these men had committed no 
crime, and had threatened to commit none. Townsley's statement that 
Brown wanted him to go up the creek five or six miles and point out 
the cabins of all the pro-slavery men that they might make a clean 



484 APPENDIX. 

sweep as they came down, shows conclusively that he was ready to kill 
any pro-slavery man, guilty or not guilty, and hence shows that his pur- 
pose was to inaugurate war, and not to make a free State." 

Also in that paper of August 15 I wrote as follows : 

" For Mr. Sanborn's information, I will say that I entertain no 
malice towards his hero, have apologized for him probably a thousand 
times, and never lifted a finger to oppose any honors to his memory by 
the State or nation. While I believed the men butchered were bad men, 
belligerents as described by Redpath and others, I excused the killing 
as best I could, and contemplated writing out a statement to be filed 
with our Historical Society, setting forth the outrages committed by 
these and similar men. But before I found the time to write this state- 
ment I became satisfied from new and conclusive evidence that these 
men were innocent of all crime or threatened crime, and that their tak- 
ing off was not intended for the protection of Free-State men from their 
outrages and such as theirs, but was intended by Brown as an act of 
offensive war. When I became satisfied on these points, I abandoned 
the work and ceased apologies for Brown." 

In your remarks before the Historical Society you say John Brown 
" deceived everybody," and also that when the truth with all the proofs 
should be published, as they soon would be, " there can be no such 
statements made as have deceived nearly a whole generation." 

It is a sufficient answer to Sanborn that I with others was deceived 
until after the time referred to by him. When this massacre occurred 
I had been absent from the Territory and a prisoner some two weeks, 
and knew nothing whatever of the situation in the Potawatomie region. 
I was told that the pro-slavery men there had inaugurated a war of 
extermination of the Free-State settlers, and that this massacre had 
put a stop to it. This was uncontradicted, and I had every reason to 
suppose there was some foundation in fact for such statements as were 
made. 

The quotation from Mr. Adams by Sanborn in his letter showed 
conclusively that when I wrote to Mr. Adams I had not been unde- 
ceived. He reports me as thinking " that the act (at Potawatomie) did 
in fact have the effect to check the career of wholesale murder which 
the pro-slavery men had entered upon, intending to kill or drive from 
Kansas every out-spoken Free-State man in the Territory." 

In the Hanway letter I say, " I will improve my first leisure to put 
on paper my views of the situation at the time." What were my views 
of the situation? Adams's letter says that I thought a "career of 
wholesale murder had been entered upon, intending to kill or drive from 
Kansas every out-spoken man in the Territory." 

Had that view proved correct, my apologies for Brown would have 
continued, but unfortunately it has no foundation in fact, and the con- 



APPENDIX. 485 

elusion is inevitable that John Brown by that act intended to ' ' involve 
the sections in war " and not to protect Free-State men. 

My view now is, after investigation, that not a man had been killed 
south of Douglas County up to that date ; that the men killed by Brown 
had committed no crime, and threatened to commit none ; and that 
Brown was ready to kill any pro-slavery man he could find simply be- 
cause he was pro-slavery. It is unnecessary to say that this change of 
view of the situation has completely changed my view of Brown and 
the Potawatomie " affair." 

Until after the date of the Hanway letter I had made no investiga- 
tion into the matter, and apologized for the massacre as best I could. 
But as soon as an honest and impartial investigation was made the case 
was wholly changed. Instead of these men being criminals they had 
not even threatened to commit a crime, and as there was no war of ex- 
termination contemplated by them, no such war had been stopped by 
their massacre. These are the facts, as I have no doubt, and facts 
brought out by non-partisan and disinterested investigators, and I am 
obliged, if honest, to accept them, whatever may have been my previous 
opinion. The speech he refers to as made at Osawatomie was made at 
Paola the evening after the meeting at Osawatomie, and was simply an 
apology based upon a state of facts which I supposed existed, but which 
now I am satisfied did not. I made such apologies all through the 
Fremont campaign in answer to Democratic criticism, and made them 
honestly, as honestly as I now retract them. The letter of the 14th of 
September, 1856, if genuine, was called out by Brown's action in de- 
fending Osawatomie, as Sanborn has already stated, and could have had 
no reference to the Potawatomie massacre, as up to that time everybody 
denied Brown's connection with it. By the way, if Sanborn thinks it a 
disgrace to admit a mistake on discovery of new facts, what does he 
think of himself? Until long after Brown's death, Sanborn and all 
Brown's family and partisans denied that he was connected with or re- 
sponsible for the Potawatomie massacre. Sanborn in his magazine ar- 
ticle says, " that he was actually present, he (Brown) always denied to 
me, and I shall believe him until some eye-witness proves the contrary." 
R. J. Hinton, in the Boston Traveller, December 3, 1859, says : 
" Brown told me he was not a participator in the Potawatomie homicide. 
John Brown was incapable of uttering a falsehood." 

John Brown's brother, J. R. Brown, in the Cleveland Plaindealer 
of November 22, 1859, says : " My brother, at the time William Doyle 
and others were killed, was not present, did not consent to the act, nor 
had any knowledge of it, and was eighteen miles distant at the time of 
the occurrence. I have this account from my brother and his two sons ; 
also from a sister and brother-in-law, now living in Kansas, who had 
personal knowledge of this transaction." 



486 APPENDIX. 

John Brown, while in prison, awaiting execution, told M. B. Lowry 
that " G. W. Brown lies when he represents me as connected with those 
murders." 

John Brown, while in prison, told the Valandingham party that called 
upon him: "I killed no man (in Kansas) except in fair fight. I 
fought at Black Jack Point and Osawatomie, and if I killed anybody it 
was at these places." 

Thomas Drew, in his compilation of i860, says: " His (Brown's) 
participation in the affair is denied, not only by himself, but by many 
witnesses who lived in the Territory at that time and had the best means 
of knowing who were the real perpetrators of the Potawatomie murders." 

Redpath, in his " Life of John Brown," i860, says, page 119: " John 
Brown did not know that these men were killed until the following 
day ; for, with one of his sons, he was twenty-five miles distant at the 
time. He was at Middle Creek. This fact can be proved by living 
witnesses." 

Also in his letter to the New York Tribune, November 5, 1859, he 
says: " I assert solemnly and with a knowledge of the fact, that old 
John Brown was more than sixteen miles distant when Doyle and his 
fellow-rufhans were justly killed. A man who participated in the kill- 
ing of these murderers confessed the particulars of the transaction tome." 

A correspondent in the New York Tribune of March 20, i860, re- 
ports as follows: "John Brown, Jr., in a lecture at Gustavus, Trum- 
bull County, Ohio, March i, i860, denied that his father was present at 
the killing of the Doyles, etc., or had any knowledge of it until the deed 
was done. He said that his father went down to the grave with the 
odium of the act because, as the old man said, for him to deny it pub- 
licly would seem to cast an imputation on the men who did kill the ruf- 
fians." 

But enough ; I might add indefinitely statements of similar purport 
from Brown and his relatives and friends. That they all denied in the 
most direct and positive terms his participation in and responsibility for 
that massacre no person will question, yet Mr. Townsley, an eye-wit- 
ness, whose testimony is unimpeached and unimpeachable, says: "Af- 
ter my team was fed and the party had taken supper, John Brown told 
me for the first time what he proposed to do. He said he wanted me 
to pilot the company up the forks of the creek, some five or six miles 
above, into the neighborhood where I lived, and show them where all 
the pro-slavery men resided ; that he proposed to sweep the creek as he 
came down of all the pro-slavery men living on it. I positively refused 
to do it. * * * The old man Doyle and two sons were called out 
and marched some distance from the house towards Dutch Henry's in 
the road, where a halt was made. Old John Brown drew his revolver 
and shot the old man Doyle in the forehead, and Brown's two youngest 



APPENDIX. 487 

sons immediately fell upon the younger Doyles with their short, two- 
edged swords." After this testimony of Townsley's was published, 
and after consultation with John Brown, Jr., and Owen Brown, Mr. 
Sanborn wrote to John Hutchings, of Lawrence, as follows : 

" Put-i.n-Bay, Ohio, August 29, 1882. 
" John Hutchings, Esq. : 

" I have talked with the Browns about Townsley's statement. In 
the main it is true. 

" F. B. Sanborn." 

If history furnishes a parallel to the cold-blooded, unblushing, persist- 
ent, and unscrupulous lying of John Brown, his family, and friends, I 
have not discovered it ; yet it is of such men some people make heroes. 

And why not? Sanborn himself belongs to the same school. In a 
letter to the Boston Transcript recently, he said Colonel Sam Walker 
told him that " shortly before the Potawatomie affair he was taken aside 
by Governor Robinson and General Lane, and it was proposed to him 
to go down in the Potawatomie country and secretly kill the border ruf- 
fians there." 

Colonel Walker has written me that he " did not say so." Neither 
does he say that I ever had any such conversation with him. Really, if 
a person who can make a hero of a man who went to the gallows with a 
lie upon his lips, and glorify a family who persisted in lying for nearly 
thirty years, and who can himself manufacture lies to order out of whole 
cloth on occasion — if such a man is shocked at a person who changes 
his views only when a new discovery of facts warrants the change, he 
must be peculiarly sensitive. It is to be hoped that but few such 
characters are to be found outside of the Concord School of Philosophy. 

It is announced that Mr. Sanborn is about to publish a book on John 
Brown, and he will doubtless publish these letters. Can we rely on his 
candor to publish this statement of mine with them? We shall see. 

Very truly, 

C. Robinson. 



f' 



^<^. 




■C"^ N.MANCHESTER. 
.■,:.■■■ INDIANA 



